Giles Paterson
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gilespaterson.com
Giles Paterson
@gilespaterson.com
My personal home in the fediverse.

I'm your typical aging geek from the dial up generation, with more interests than time/energy. I like to tinker with all […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://social.gilespaterson.com/@giles, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
I had a go at linocut printing today, using my 5yo's quick drawing of me as source material.

It was good fun carving the lino but my print is very messy. Will try some more tomorrow.
January 18, 2026 at 10:10 PM
My brother in law has written some fine words about his relationship and interactions with Blanche Marvin (actress, critic, force of nature), who died this week aged 100.

https://andrzejlukowski.substack.com/p/remembering-my-friend-colleague-fairy

#blanchemarvin #theatre
Remembering my… friend? colleague? fairy godmother? Blanche Marvin
Some memories of a somewhat improbable person who I shared some time with
andrzejlukowski.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 9:15 AM
As a proof of concept before shelling out good money on a real cat bed, I wrapped an old t-shirt over an Ikea Kallax box, stuck some old wool felt in there and put it on the spare bed (near where my cat normally sleeps).

The cat immediately climbed […]

[Original post on social.gilespaterson.com]
January 15, 2026 at 12:43 PM
[bodily functions]

Well, that was surprising.

My new liquid multivitamin (for middle aged men), turns my pee fluorescent yellow. My toilet looks like I dropped a highlighter pen in there.
January 15, 2026 at 11:57 AM
In an attempt to do more creative things, I bought myself a printing kit, with a view to doing some monoprinting, then maybe some linocut printing.

For my first project I want to do a monoprint based on a photo I took of my son. So I dug my lightbox out of the loft where it has languished with […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
January 8, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Oh yeah, perfect running weather 🤣.

Might wear my leggings today instead of shorts.
January 4, 2026 at 7:57 AM
Note to self: draw more.
January 2, 2026 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
December 30, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Nailed it.
December 23, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I have bought a used sheetfed network document scanner (Brother ADS-2400n) for £40 on eBay and hooked it up to an instance of paperless-ngx running on my NAS.

I now just have to push a button on the scanner and a PDF appears in paperless, tagged and ready to go.

My plan is to digitise my daily […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Have you seen that how to draw an owl meme? The one that starts with drawing some simple circles, then the next step is to draw the rest of the fucking owl?

Well this saultoons youtube video will show you how to draw the rest of the fucking owl (well, duck actually) […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I love it when something you order goes on a wild shipping journey around the world. Couriers that don't let you see every stop along the way suck all the joy out of international shipping.

My current parcel has gone from Kunshan, China, to Shanghai, then to Dubai (where it got passed between a […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
December 1, 2025 at 11:16 AM
I do not need this. I own the original train set from when I was a child but still... https://uk.hornby.com/products/hornby-railways-br-high-speed-retro-train-set-r1289m?

I mean, my original power adapter is dead. The new one has Bluetooth... I'm sure my kids would like to play with a train set...
R1289M Hornby Railways B.R. High Speed Retro Train Set
R1289M, Hornby Railways B.R. High Speed Retro Train Set, Hornby, Train Sets, 1:76 Scale 00 Gauge, OO
uk.hornby.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
A year ago, I saw someone open a book lamp in a bar. It was a pretty expensive product. Since I combine electronics and paper crafting, I had to DIY it and develop an easy-to-use circuit template and instructions for it. This educational project is perfect for […]

[Original post on chaos.social]
April 23, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople
Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis
City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.
www.forbes.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:21 AM
There's nothing like a bit of rain to bring out the bad driving brigade.

People were speeding and pushing through tiny gaps on the school run today as if their cars might shrink because they got wet.

Meanwhile I'm togged up in my waterproofs while my youngest is tucked up on the cargo bike […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
Breaking news (to me): "If wheel running is indeed caused by captive housing, wild mice are not expected to use a running wheel in nature. This however, to our knowledge, has never been tested. Here, we show that when running wheels are placed in nature […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
November 12, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
Thinking about all these repeated attempts to strip away privacy to make it easier for cops to catch bad guys.

And honestly, I get their point. Figuring out who dun the crime is really hard, there's a reason TV detectives are admired as such super-smart people.

But... I think it was Pratchett […]
Original post on mastodon.monoceros.co.za
mastodon.monoceros.co.za
November 12, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
My recent tinkering with network booting a raspberry pi 4 was part of my efforts to migrate away from Google. I've set up Immich on the pi, and have migrated my Google Photos content to it.

This was a surprisingly simple process. Immich is running via docker on the pi, so was trivial to start […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
My recent tinkering with network booting a raspberry pi 4 was part of my efforts to migrate away from Google. I've set up Immich on the pi, and have migrated my Google Photos content to it.

This was a surprisingly simple process. Immich is running via docker on the pi, so was trivial to start […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Now I can finish taking over the world!
November 9, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I'm tinkering around with getting my raspberry pi computers to boot over my network, rather than relying on local SD cards. I'm using it as an exercise to expand my ansible knowledge too, as I'm using that to do the initial provisioning (sadly you need an SD card to do the setup as you need to […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Giles Paterson
I'm experimenting with bridging my account to bluesky, via brid.gy. I'm not particularly bothered by bluesky but I have some friends who use it so a modicum of cross posting might be useful.

My account there is https://bsky.app/profile/giles.gilespaterson.com.ap.brid.gy
October 31, 2025 at 4:37 PM
I have succeeded with my #gotosocial upgrade (see https://social.gilespaterson.com/@giles/statuses/01K6JV0RMJSQB2JQ5G0R1BMHXC for previous attempt)

This time I shutdown, moved the sqlite.db file to my MacBook, and spun up the docker image on that to do the upgrade, then moved it back again […]
Original post on social.gilespaterson.com
social.gilespaterson.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:29 PM