🍃 Nick 🍁

Very happy to see @Codeberg@social.anoxinon.de add LLM-generated content restrictions, and a ban on cryptocurrency-related projects...

So much of the world around runs counter to my own sense, but codeberg gives me hope! ❤️

I met my new neighbour swan family today ❤️

#Photography #Wildlife

Argh, I'd really like to build up a local tech collective here that can support more liberatory tech...

Small projects, e.g. community gardens, often struggle with wordpress websites, and I get asked to help...

... but I don't want to be the sucker hidden away maintaining ancient wordpress sites for free/little money for years... (that probably people hardly visit anyway).

Anyone have advice/tips/experiences here?

Driving a fast car in a big city looks immensely frustrating, just get to accelerate briefly, then a couple of hundred meters later brake again...

For a real thrill, cycling through heavy traffic has gotta win! I used to cycle quite riskily (cannot endorse!), and it really got my adrenaline going...

If you haven't heard of it and like the idea of collaborative mapping, check out https://facilmap.org

I love it, you can customize a lot, like all the marker types, do cycle routing on it, search for things, etc...

Then share a read only version.

I've used it for organising bike trips, or just any trip where I need to share a bunch of location points, and do it collaboratively.

(It came out of the ecotopia bike tour project iiuc)

When people share links to petitions, or inspiring videos, or talks or even events I kinda don't even see them any more, just scroll on by. I feel a kind of drowning sense. Too many. Too many different topics. Too much to get my head around.

Whereas personal messages feel special. They are to me in particular. I suspect that's the difference. All the links to things are addressed to the generic masses. I am nobody. But I want to organise and engage with specific people, so I prioritise that.

I enjoyed spending some time looking at and photographing flowers yesterday.

#Photography

1/2

I only got a crappy photo here as I was moving at the time... but I love the way these trees have found a way to water!

HacktionLab 2026 gathering! I've been involved in organising this this year.

It's been going for ~18 years now, and over the years I think it might have become less and less tech, and more personal/social - last year there was talks on consciousness, music tuning, how to discuss difficult topics, etc...

I think I'll do a session on ecopsychology, with a geek-orientated perspective...

Signup here 👉 https://hl2026.hacktionlab.org/ (hand coded, no AI, retro style form!)

I made an experimental mastodon invite qr code sticker generator - the idea is to put them up locally, on lampposts, etc...

It's experimental as I didn't actually try getting the stickers printed yet... sizing might be off... from a quick look 7cm x 7cm seemed a reasonable size.

You can generate and download stickers (or rather an image) for your own instance at https://nicksellen.co.uk/qr/ - and customize the message. It runs entirely in the browser.

"... that's Christmas dinner sorted"

That's one of my favourite passerby conversation snippets for a while 😆

Who is planning Christmas dinner on a warm evening in May???

"You can't look back at it, just got to move on"

This is a very common sentiment, and I think very unfortunate.

I think it results in a lot of stuck feelings that then emerge in some other form, much harder to then trace back to the source.

It is however what many people have to do, given the loving environment to process those difficult experiences is often not available.

The formalisation of food surplus redistribution is interesting:
1. start with dumpster diving, just take it, shop can actually be co-operative
2. then community co-ordinated food surplus collections, just makes sense
3. then multi million pound founded for-profit businesses come for it...

The sad thing to me is that in 1 (and some of 2) you can use your own judgement on when food is still edible, in 3 you are obligated to throw it out past the use by date (another layer of food waste).

Some cauliflower! I just rested it in my shoe as somewhere to put it... and then it looked pretty!

Two times in the last few days people have appreciated that we've been able to chat about more real/emotional/difficult/dark topics, rather than staying in the "everything is lovely" vibe... 🫂

Both times the people referred to that as being able to talk to someone "normal" ❤️

I wish that was normal!! (statistically speaking)

(I guess the sentiment is that it's normal, given we are real people, that everything is not always lovely 😥)

... and my hummus ... I did one without tahini in it, as I don't usually need a whole jar... and it keeps it simpler and cheaper.

was yummy! 10x nicer than shop hummus...

I opened a recipe for "Coconut curry dumplings" and one of the ingredients was "dumplings" ... not what I was expecting. What are *those* dumplings made of? yet more dumpings? Dumplings all the way down??

I love catching the bus, but it does expose me to the wild, and sometimes I'm unprepared for what I'll encounter....

😬😬😬😬😬

I'm amazed getting actual realworld download speeds like this, on a mobile connection...

604.6 MiB 46.5 MiB/s 00:13

One perpetual source of hope and optimism for me is when I hear about young people like this:

"Carter,14, said young people should not miss out because of the failings of big technology companies.

"The government needs to look more at the companies themselves and hold them accountable for the content they are allowing on there.""

When I see big groups of runners, all chatting away, it makes me feel very very different.

Or maybe I'd love it if I tried it! ... and I don't run nearly as much as I think would be good for me...