3/ Take photos. Lots of photos. Take photos of yourself, in minimal clothing, for comparison later when you feel like it’s not working. (Keep them private - do not feel you have to show these photos to anyone.) But also take photos of all prescriptions and labels - you will need these photos as evidence when ordering from different pharmacies.

There's a good chance you're using an ARM chip right now!

And if you want to read the whole article, that entire issue of the magazine is online: https://ia800802.us.archive.org/33/items/beebugv0602/beebugv0602_text.pdf

And then there was this! I was leafing through one of the old magazines scattered about and came across this story: ACORN'S 32 BIT RISC

I remember that at the time! I remember the Archimedes coming out too!

But the line:
'In reality the Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM as Acorn call their new processor...'

I mean, who'd've thought that nearly 40 years later ARM chips would be *everywhere*? Acorn obviously had high hopes but I think we can agree they punched well above their weight there.

They have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Timeline-Carrickfergus/61592370308595/

And there are a couple of Tik Toks if that's your kind of thing too:
https://www.tiktok.com/@timelinecarrick/video/7674959732225985814
https://www.tiktok.com/@timelinecarrick/video/7675772747544268054

It was lovely to just pop in and see it all though.

I'm not into the whole retro-computing scene but I got hit by a whole bucketload of nostalgia today in Carrickfergus Library!

'Timeline Carrickfergus' had a 'hands-on celebration' of retro computers with nearly every home computer I saw growing up. Got all The Feels seeing an old BBC Master, remembering spending so long playing Arcadians on it, as well as the iconic Elite. And they'd even set it up so you could play Chuckie Egg!

2/? The four questions you originally came up withwere good, even if you could only answer 3:
1. Do you want to do it?
2. Can you actually get it?
3. Can you afford it?
4. Can you handle the side-effects?
1 is important - it's not up to anyone else. 2 is just medical criteria. 3 is troubling but OK if it works. 4 is an unfair fucker of a question you'll have no idea how to answer until after you've tried, but so far so good!

1/? Mounjaro is incredible. Mounjaro is terrible. At the same time. You want some of the effects. You don't want some of the side-effects. It's a difficult balancing act. Other people on Mounjaro have it easier. Others have it much harder. But you'll do OK.

#Mounjaro #GLP1

One year ago today I started taking Mounjaro. It's been quite a year!

A weird thing: in the UK, about 2 million people are taking GLP-1RAs like #Mounjaro / #Ozempic / #Wegovy That's nearly 3% of the population. And yet... no-one I know IRL is taking a GLP-1RA. Is Norn Iron an exception and all the folks on these meds are across the water? Or do we just not really talk about it?

And maybe one of the songs at the uke jam will be Billy The Fish, the Belfast Uke Fest theme song. Here's the playalong. #ukulele #belfastukefest

If you've ever wanted to try playing a ukulele and you're near Belfast next Sunday (16th August), the Belfast Ukulele Festival is trying to get a load of people together for their Big Uke Jam - what they hope will be 'the biggest gathering of ukulele players Belfast has ever seen!'

The jam is at 2pm (just turn up!), but you can sign up for a free Absolute Beginners class at 1pm and you can even borrow a ukulele for the class and the jam.

https://www.belfastukefest.co.uk/the-big-jam

@DJDarren Ooh - seen this? I wonder how good the local wake-word detection is - that's something I really felt was missing from Home Assistant Voice.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/pine64-pinevoice-riscv-smart-speaker-launch

Looks like I'll be on-stage with all the Flame N Ukes on Bank Holiday Monday 4th May at 11am.

(If you turn up after 12:30 you should be safe...)

Abandon the em-dash in your human writing?

The irony—and it’s a big irony—is that real writers use em-dash frequently, and for reasons. As a written signifier of verbal speech pauses, it means something different than what commas and semicolons mean. It connects while separating.

That’s why so many writers use em-dash when it is the best mark for the job. And chatbots use it because they were schooled on millions of writers.

1/3

I went in to a local wool shop on 11th December. I hadn't expected them to have anything in stock but maybe they'd have pointers and be able to order it in. But they had this gorgeous wool, so I bought some.

Then I had to learn to crochet. @shezza_t sent me some videos and helped with my daft questions. After a couple of weeks learning and practice I started on the cowl.

6 days later it was finished. And I'm chuffed with it!

I'm now looking at other things that need crocheted...

#crochet

I made this!

A month ago I decided I wanted a new scarf.

I wanted it to be a long, 'mobius cowl' that would loop around my neck twice. And I wanted it to look like flames.

And I wanted to make it myself. Even though I've never crocheted anything in my life before.

So I did!

#crochet

Irrationally annoyed at @ivory making noises for notifications even though I’ve turned sound off in its settings.

I learned a new term from 'Too Much Information' by Dave Gorman: a 'reality klaxon'.

When watching a show/movie, it's something that brings you out of that imagined world back to real life.

For him it's phone numbers starting 555. We all know those numbers don't exist but to him it's a reminder that what he's watching isn't real.

For me it's those awful nods to previous shows that actor has been in, like Sam telling O'Neill in SG-1 she 'Macguyvered' something.

What are your reality klaxons?

Clearing out stuff - this is from back when I used to play games. Little bits of history there...

Carrickferg.Us now has a favicon. Kneel before my amateurish Inkscape skills!

(I admit the whole site looks amateurish, but I kinda like it.)

https://carrickferg.us/