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                    JOURNAL FOR SATURDAY 29TH AUGUST, 2026
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SUBJECT: A quick update
   DATE: Sat 29 Aug 16:00:01 BST 2026

Of late things around here have been very quite. That’s not because I’m idle.
In fact I’ve been working on a whole host of different projects. The main
issue is everything keeps stalling, I keep stalling. I finish work for the
day, perform admin tasks across all my systems, go through my email. Then it’s
time to code and I just don’t feel like it :(

Anyway, what have I got on my plate right now?

First there was `inc` my little file include utility. That’s been done and
dusted for a while. I’ve been using it a lot for Markdown documentation and
pulling in code snippets and configuration file examples.

I then moved on to `norem`,  a tool for removing comments from file formats
that don’t natively support them. Formats such as plain text, Markdown, JSON,
Yaml and others. This is currently a work in progress. It’s incredibly handy
for annotating configuration files.

Together `inc` and `norem` have been incredibly good at documenting and
breaking down inscrutable, monstrous manifest files in Kubernetes.

Another project done and dusted was MDSSG. My Markdown static site generator.
MDSSG was built with the hope of transforming this website into something more
useful. I now need to convert the whole site from simple plain text files to
Markdown. Currently this site is over 1,000 files. I need to pick over and
convert each one.

I’ve been trying to use Claude with Ollama, so everything is local. Initially
that did not go well. After a lot of effort I have it working but the results
are a tad disappointing, but improving the more I experiment. I’m looking
forward to the Linux 7.3 vRAM patches and hope it helps. People who tell you
to just “download Claude, download Ollama, grab a model and boom!” are lying.
If you want it local and want to be secure there is a lot more to it. Maybe
I’ll write up my findings for the journal if people are interested.

I’ve been working on my slim web serving stack called `watchman`. It’s been
serving this site and the Git repositories for a few months now. However, it
needs tidying up so I can release it. Its scope has expanded a little and
support is being added for environments. Environments allow for a single Git
repository to hold multiple setups on the same branch. This can be useful for
development, testing and production configurations or for configurations for
multiple machines. I said I was going to write a how-to for people who want a
slim web serving solution.

I’m still working on Mere, my own programming language. That keeps stalling
due to everything else I have going on. Currently I have to write or update a
huge number of tests — which I hate doing. I know tests are important so I
force myself to write them.

Then there is my main project WolfMUD. That has been sitting quietly for far
too long. I have some new ideas I want to implement. I also know my style of
programming has changed a lot since I started the current version of WolfMUD.
I look at the code now with a critical eye and think to myself “I can do
better than that”.

Quite a full plate.

--
Diddymus


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