This week was better than last week in that I didn't burn a large chunk of it reinstalling and configuring my laptop. I did continue recovering configuration and installing the odd package, but mostly little things like touchpad, screen lock, firejail, fingerprint authentication… and so on and so forth. I stumbled upon aconfmgr, a configuration manager for Arch Linux, which should help streamline the process should it happen again in the future.

At Yvant we had a meeting with the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3) to discuss the possibility of us collaborating or partnering with them on their k.LAB software. The software, which is the backbone of the ARIES system, is widely used by NGOs and the developers of BC3 believe there is a huge demand, (and need for environmental purposes) for the software to be used for commercial organisations. We could potentially help them bring it to a wider audience, something they don't have the capacity for.

I reluctantly set up my LinkedIn profile (and GitHub profile to boot). We still haven't had any luck landing a project, and we've come to the realisation that we have to park our privacy concerns get our name and brand out there as much as possible. I'd hate to have to resort to advertising though.

Week 3 of the Terra.do Climate Change course delved into comparing different greenhouse gases through the global warming potential (GWP) and the global carbon cycle. I'm struggling to find time to document my progress on the project page I set up; maybe I'll find time this week. The most powerful thing I watched was this week's guest lecture on my Terra.do course by Dr Chip Fletcher. It was a sobering, anxiety inducing presentation but one which I highly recommend watch; we all need a wake-up call.

On Thursday caught up with some old work colleagues for dinner and drinks. It's always nice to talk shop (tech) with fellow developers, and great see where they're at since we've all left the company we worked for. The majority of the conversation revolved around climate, energy, tech, electric cars.

That same night, and with a couple of beers in me, I decided to sleep outside in my bivy. The night was clear, the moon and the stars were out (and due to stay out) and I'd been wanting to test out my Feathered Friends sleeping bac and Alpkit Hunka bivy in some cold weather for some time. The temperature got down to 1 degree, but I was warm all night and it was brilliant gazing up at the stars each time I woke. By morning the bivy was covered in frost and was a bit damp on the inside, which also made my sleeping bag slightly wet in patches. I need to work out how to prevent this, but overall a successful night. And a confidence builder for some wild camping this year.

I worked from a coffee shop on Friday. It was such a lovely morning and I felt like a walk, so I returned to my old habit of strolling down to one of the local coffee shops and plugging in my headphones for 3-4 hours. There's something about being out of the house and amidst the noise and comings and goings of a coffee shop that massively boosts my focus. Again, need to do more of this.

I played in a volleyball tournament on Saturday, organised by a few guys from the Cardiff university team. We lost every game, but we played against some quality opposition. We've only just formed our team and we're still learning the game, and although we showed some good signs, we also got pummelled by one of the better sides. I hate losing.

On the fitness front I crossed the 60 second mark for a freestanding handstand, 65 seconds. I also knocked another 34 seconds off my best recent 10km time, clocking in at 42:28. My diet this week was also much better; I estimate about 75% vegan.

Finally, my daughter played three fantastic games of football on Sunday. She scored two amazing goals, helping the team to three wins, zero losses. The girls have been together for over a year now and are really starting to gel, both on the pitch and off. It's so nice to see them forming these bonds, which I know from personal experience last a lifetime.