The server behind the couch
MONKEserver is an old laptop that should be in a drawer. Instead it serves this website — and taught me more about how the internet works than any job ever has.
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2024MacBook Pro M3The daily driver. Quiet, cold, and faster than it has any right to be.
2024iPhoneThe camera that's always in my pocket, with a phone attached.
2025AirPods Pro 3Noise cancellation as a personality trait.
2025Amazfit Helio StrapWhoop's idea without the monthly fee — a screenless tracker, and a quiet ten-year bet on my own data.
2024Lumix S5IIFull-frame, open-gate, and the reason the camera node exists.
2022Vacuum seal bagsThe least glamorous item I recommend the hardest. Closet space is a finite resource.
2023LED stripBias lighting behind the monitor. Eyes filed a thank-you note.~ proficient
The stack
The software I actually know my way around — behind the photos, the writing, and this site.
- RStudiodata · RWhere the numbers get interrogated — R for the statistics a spreadsheet won't sit still for.
- Adobe Creative Cloudphoto · designLightroom and Photoshop for the frames the Lumix brings home; the rest of the suite when a brief demands it.
- ClaudeAI · codePair programmer, editor, and rubber duck. A fair chunk of this site started as a conversation here.
- CodexAI · codeThe second model in rotation — a useful second opinion when the first one and I can't agree.
- Final Cut ProvideoWhere footage becomes something worth watching — timeline, colour, the lot.
- Figmadesign · UIInterfaces get drawn here before a line of code. This page was a rectangle first.
- Pythoncode · dataThe glue. Scripts, scrapers, and the odd model — whatever needs automating.
- ExcelspreadsheetsUnfashionable and unbeatable — where a messy problem goes to become a tidy table.
34%CPU
63%MEM
38°TEMP
47%DISK
- Traefikreverse proxy99.98%
- Pi-holeDNS · adblock99.95%
- Docker14 containers100%
- Next.jsthis website99.99%
- Tailscalemesh VPN100%
- Grafanadashboards99.9%
one consumer laptop · zero cloud bills · several questionable decisions
- Netgear router 2019–2023† rebooted itself one final, dignified time
- Intel MacBook Pro 2015–2024† promoted to couch server. Not actually dead — ascended
- Fitbit Charge 2 2017–2020† drowned heroically in a washing machine
- Wireless mouse #3 2021–2022† double-click of its own free will
- USB hub (unbranded) 2020–2020† took two ports down with it
- Smart bulb 2022–2025† firmware update bricked its will to live
~/writing
My notes on tech
an ongoing log
photographyFeatured — the big readA camera, and the art of paying attentionI blew my first proper salary on a camera I didn't know how to use. What it really bought me was a way to live more deliberately.Read the essay More notes
healthhealth4 min readAmazfit Helio StrapWhoop had the right idea, then put your own data behind a monthly paywall. The Helio Strap is the concept without the ongoing fee — and a quiet ten-year bet.Read smart-homesmart-home2 min readSmart lights, finallyTen years of cheap coloured LED strips, finally made smart — every light in the flat, controlled by voice, sourced from a factory in Shenzhen for the price of a takeaway.Read traveltravel1 min readVacuum bagsRyanair charges you to bring your own belongings onto a plane. A bag with a valve is how you refuse to pay it.Read ~/gear
The Kit
Objects that earn their desk space — and the verdict on each.
’24
MacBook Pro M3
The daily driver. Quiet, cold, and faster than it has any right to be.