I've been thinking about this problem for a while but, as usual, Louie Mantia Jr's post about Maps possibly becoming a useful app one day was an inspiration to get writing*.

Now, he sarcastically, or hopefully (or both), posted that "one day search in Maps will be useful". He gave the example of a search for "lunch", presumably to find some nearby cafés and restaurants, turning up a result called Lunch Lake in Canada (he lives in Japan) which could not be less useful if it tried.

I have a similar gripe. I use Apple Maps a lot when I'm planning my many trips to Japan. I've been twice already (once in 2024, once in 2025). I have another trip coming up for school (10 days of babysitting, yay) and another personal holiday for most of December 2025 and January 2026. I've been using Apple Maps a lot. Read more…

I updated my Mastodon server's domain, updated my personal website, and changed my profile picture. Probably not to everybody's taste, but it's my server and my website, so there. 🙂

Hand-writing websites is fun. I based the current design on a website that was around in the 2000s and 2010s, feet.net.nz, run by a New Zealand-based photographer called Kyle Carter. I'm not sure why his website is called Feet Gallery, because it doesn't really have any feet on it other than the two in the logo. I'd ask but, to be honest, I don't really care; after all, if anybody were to ask me "why feet?", my answer would be a simple "why not?" and that's good enough for me as an explanation for anything else.

Not that there was anything that links our websites other than the domain name, really. But, given my username has long had the word 'feet' in it somewhere or other, his website used to pop up from time to time in web searches. I'd have a look. So now, I made a sort of tribute to a self-run blog of the best kind: the early 2000s kind! Read more…

Quick stop in Palmerston North on the way home from a trip to see family. When I lived here as a kid, the Square had a waterfall, more than one pond, and the clock tower didn't have a silly hat.

The other day, some friends and I met up for dinner, drinks, and conversation. Dual purpose: catch up after a long time out of contact (due to moving away, coming back, etc.), and, importantly, pass time until we went to watch the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

We went to an Asian fusion restaurant on Courtenay Place. I'm not entirely sure what the fusion was. The flavours seemed to be fairly generic pan-Asian food as you would find in New Zealand, the menu not seeming to come from any one place. The food was tasty enough, if not quite enough for the amount we paid.

What I really enjoyed were the two-for-one cocktails. Mango and tequila, lychee and vodka, these things made the night. So, okay food, great drinks. With an hour left before the movie, so we decided to get some more drinks elsewhere. Read more…

Today, my father-in-law was cremated. He had passed away the Friday prior.

Somehow, it fell to me to make a lot of the funeral arrangements. I was honoured to be able to contribute in some way to celebrating his life but I won't lie, it was stressful. I had to take the whole week off just to have time to grieve, process, and get on with the details.

He had only just remarried a little over a month ago. That side of his family was in such shock. One of his step-daughters was incredible and got on to doing the research straight away. By the time I arrived the Friday afternoon to come see them, she'd already done research on funeral homes. We all found the pricing structures very confusing but I'm grateful we had a place to start. Read more…

I went to New Plymouth for the first time yesterday with my partner, a friend, and one of their daughters. Here are the highlights.

Puke Ariki Museum: nice. Slices of local history, wildlife (shark! moa!), and a section on Dalvanius Prime. There were some interactives for kids

Festival of Lights: peak! I loved the Pukekura Park, very pretty, enhanced by the light shows. The park itself is lovely with mini-lakes, Japanese bridges, and plenty of winding paths. Seen here: Ember, with smoke emanating from between a recreation of a campfire. Read more…

Steve Jobs said not everybody will need a PC/laptop form factor, likening them to trucks. Rather, people will gravitate towards smartphones and tablets, likening them to cars. Not everybody needs a truck, most people can do with a car. But some of us need something heavier duty than a car so we have truck.

To be clear, in his metaphor, the Mac is a truck. macOS is the engine that powers the truck.

Once upon a time, I used to mock those old heads who steadfastly cleaved to their PowerPC Macs running Mac OS 9. "Come join us in the future with Mac OS X on Intel!" I thought. A little down the line, it changed to "Surely you can't do without the latest macOS on an Apple Silicon machine!" Read more…

I run a Discord server where some ex-students keep in touch, let me know what's going on with their lives, and just shoot the breeze. Right now, it's a hive of activity, which is really nice. It's nice seeing students from years gone by interacting with each other openly, freely, regardless of when they were in my class.

Mainly, they seem to just play Wordle and compare their Linux setups. Still!

National, Act, NZ First.
Awful.

Taking away the obligation to honour te Tiriti.
Abominable.

The number of teachers I know who would jump for joy.
Shameful. Read more…

This blog post comes in two, tangentially related parts.

I love being a teacher, sometimes. Last week, the senior students at my school went on study leave. In particular, Year 13s go off for a fun day of bowling and whanaungatanga (celebrating and cementing their connections as a cohort), then come back for a final assembly, receive their leavers' certificates, then go home. Aside from turning up to exams and the few who go to the formal dinner later in the year, this is the last chance to see them.

At the Year 13 assembly this year, I was extremely touched to see some students I've taught or made connections with absolutely brimming with confidence. One young man got up and sang in front of his cohort, dancing enthusiastically and energetically in a way you wouldn't have believed had you met him in Year 9, when he seemed perpetually grumpy (but actually turned out to just be incredibly direct). Read more…