Dan Q

I'm Dan Q (he/him). I've spent the last 26+ years creating and writing online.

I work as a software engineer, and I volunteer with Three Rings. I live with my partner, her husband, two kids and a dog. I can sometimes be found geo*ing, performing magic, or recording the most pointless podcast.

I believe in open source, open relationships, and opening doors to marginalised groups. Black lives matter. Trans rights are human rights.
Be nice to humans, human.

Photograph of Dan, his ponytail hanging over the shoulder of his black t-shirt, smiling from behind his beard and waving to the camera.

  • Nostalgia, Music, and Computers

    It turns out that I get nostalgic about technology in the same way as I get nostalgic about music. Here's some things that take me right back to being nine, eleven, thirteen and fifteen years old. Read more →

  • Imajica by Clive Barker

    I recently finished reading Clive Barker's Imajica for what I think is the fourth time. It remains one of my favourite fantasy novels, and I'd love to tell you why. Read more →

  • Why I Am So Tired

    After dusting off and modernising a joke I first read in a chain email from 1996, I can tell you conclusively that the reason that I'm tired is because I'm overworked. Read more →

  • Visualising Forged In The Dark probabilities

    Blades in the Dark (and other Forged In The Dark-based games) use a highest-value-from-D6-dice-pool mechanic to resolve actions. I was looking for a visualisation of the resulting probabilities, but couldn't find one... so I made my own. Read more →

  • Roomscale VR Still Rocks

    I'd promised the kids I'd dig up my (ten-year-old!) original HTC Vive VR gear and hook it up in the living room over Christmas. Roomscale VR, even running on decade-old kit, still rocks and is as immersive as ever! Read more →

  • Egg and Dispatch

    I don't get much time for videogames, so when I find the opportunity to complete not one but two games within a single month, you know my recommendation of them holds some weight! Let me tell you about 'Egg', and 'Dispatch'. Read more →

  • Actually, Yes! (that IS what my birth certificate says)

    There's a certain kind of person who, upon hearing my unusual name, immediately asks whether that's what's on my birth certificate (with an underlying implication that it's not my 'real' name, whatever that means, if it isn't). Well: as of this week, thanks to a quirk in Scottish law, the name I've used every day for almost two decades DOES appear my birth certificate. Fuck the haters. Read more →

  • For anyone who :has :not yet seen the magic of modern CSS

    CSS is all grown-up, and the combination of nested selectors, variables, :not, and :has unlocks a wealth of potential for interactivity and customisation without resorting to (the slower and brittler approach of) JavaScript. Let me show you two examples from my recent editor history. Read more →

  • CSS Lightbox with Alt Text Viewer

    Off the back of my details/summary-based semantic HTML+CSS lightbox, I've come up with a way to add Mastodon-like 'show alt text' widgets in the same way, and I'll be applying both to images on my blog's new theme, in the New Year. Read more →

  • More articles →
    (articles are traditional long-form blog posts)

  • 88x31 Button Creator

    Dan of ritual.sh has produced an absolutely epic 88×31 button generator; well worth playing with if you're into that kind of thing. Read more →

  • Post: EV Battery Low

    Tonight I learned that when my electric car gets down to 5% battery, it sounds an alarm.
    And that when it gets down to 4% battery, it sounds a louder alarm.
    And that when it gets down to 3% battery, it engages 'limited performance' mode and shows a picture of a tortoise.
    And that when it gets down to 2%, and you've already turned off the heating and the radio and you're wondering how much power the windscreen wipers are using... that's when it stops showing you it's estimated range.
    Fortunately, I then only had half a mile left to go. But for a while there it felt a little bit hairy!

  • Note #27940

    Bitterly cold and starkly beautiful, this morning: West Oxfordshire is blanketed in an impenetrably thick freezing fog.It’s quite pretty, though I’m regretting not bringing my gloves out with me! × Read more →

  • Chain Words

    I've been enjoying playing Chain Words, from eclectech, intermittently, since it came out in November. If you've not given it a go yet, and you like a word game that's a bit different, you should try it! Read more →

  • Note #27909

    Not kink-shaming anyone, but I’m not sure I want to go to the ‘toilets viewing area’. × Read more →

  • Note #27906

    The younger kids' taekwondo school put on a free 'new years workout' class this morning. It was pretty awesome.

    My watch says my heart rate averaged 146bpm, peaking at 169bpm. It's possible I'm not as fit as I used to be. 😅

    But at least I don't feel like I might die, like I did during the 'dads go free' promotion last year. Progress? Read more →

  • Why I Am So Tired [Video]

    A video version of my recent joke about why I'm so tired, which was also made available in article and podcast formats. Read more →

  • Post: Bee

    As part of my efforts to reclaim the living room from the children, I'm building a new gaming PC for the playroom. She's called Bee, and - thanks to the absolute insanity that is The Tower 300 case from Thermaltake - she's one of the most bonkers PC cases I've ever worked in. Read more →

  • A small collection of text-only websites

    Terence Eden's maintaining a list of websites that are presented as, or are wholly or partially available via, plain text. Obviously my own text/plain blog is among them, and is as far as I'm aware the only one to be entirely presented as text/plain. Read more →

  • Post: Tintern Abbey

    Tintern Abbey’s looking especially beautiful in the fresh snow, this morning. × Read more →

  • Post: Invisible Dog

    Our dog has decided that the perfect place to lie down at our holiday accommodation is… on a staircase whose carpet is the same colour as her!I’m grateful for her very-visible blep… or I’d have tripped over this camouflaged pupper several times already! × Read more →

  • Found GC47WME PYVW- Cuckoo Wood

    I was in these woods anyway, seeking GC10N80 and figured I'd come hunt for this cache too. A quick find; my geosense spotted a candidate hiding place right from the main path, and I turned out to be right. Read more →

  • Found GC10N80 Wye Eye

    This puzzle cache, undiscovered for 20 months, made for one of the most satisfying geocaching expeditions I've ever done. Read more →

  • Found GC39NPC Cleddon shoots and falls

    Hiked over from Catbrook on the way to a cache up Pen Y Fan and stopped by these beautiful waterfalls on the way. So glad I did! Read more →

  • D&D 5e is not for everyone

    Kai Koehler reminds us that D&D 5e is far from the only TTRPG, with a tight dissection of its specific characteristics so that they can be compared to other, perhaps more roleplay-heavy, games and systems. They include some suggested ideas for other games, too, a couple of which I'm strongly-inclined to try out! Read more →

  • More posts →
    (of all kinds: articles, checkins, notes, reposts...)