Tinkering
It’s just gone 10pm on Sunday evening, and I’m in my usual bolt-hole – hiding out in the junk room, listening to music, and emptying my head into the keyboard while the younger children sleep, and my other half watches TV shows in the lounge. Miss 17 is chatting with friends on her phone in her room – I can faintly hear her voice over the music from time to time.
I didn’t go anywhere today. While my other half took the younger children to rugby I stayed at home to keep Miss 17 company – she’s had a rough few days. Inbetween hoovering her room, and putting load after load through the washing machine and tumble dryer, I found myself tinkering with something rather ridiculous.
I’m still not sure how I stumbled upon the YouTube video showing you how to convert a Raspberry Pi into an Amiga, but within an hour of watching it I found myself sitting in front of the screen, building a USB stick to try it out. It was something of a voyage of discovery for me – I never owned an Amiga years ago, so I really understood nothing I was looking at or doing while blindly following instructions. We had an “Atari ST” in our house during my teenage years – bought to use as a music sequencer, but never used as such. My Dad spent most of his time typing sheet music into a database, and I spent most of my time playing a ridiculous football game called “Kick Off”.
Thankfully I have a co-worker that owned an Amiga back in the day – I’ll take the Raspberry Pi with me tomorrow, and hopefully he will be able to make head-or-tail of any of it. There is of course no reason to any of this – it’s a black-belt-level procrastination escapade that only I seem to be capable of.
Back in the real world, Miss 14 kicked her first conversion on the rugby field today. She finally put into practice all the things we have been practicing, and didn’t so much put the rugby ball through the posts, as put it into orbit. I think they lost the ball into the next field, and had to use a replacement to re-start the match. If she can only add a little consistency now, she will start adding more and more points to the team’s tally.
Also worth noting that today was “Mother’s Day” in the UK. My other half received a card, a book, and a magazine from our youngest, and nothing from the other children. I expressed my disappointment with them (even though I privately think mother and father’s day are both cynical marketing exercises), and made sure a huge card and box of chocolates were waiting in the living room this morning. The children didn’t have to be told that the chocolates were “not for sharing”…
It’s getting late. I should probably head to bed – don’t want to ruin the run of half-decent night’s sleep this fitness tracking watch seems to think I’m having. I used to be SUCH a night owl – staying up into the early hours. Not any more, it seems.