Author: Stephen James

I’ve just ordered a new bike light so that I can go for a blast around the lanes after dark. As per usual, I got bogged down with the sheer number of options available, but quickly narrowed it down once I realised that both Moon and Knog include models in their respective ranges with replaceable batteries. In the interest of both the environment and my pocket, this makes sense.

I’ve gone for a Moon Meteor Storm Lite (surely coming up with a snappier name wouldn’t have taken *that* much more effort?). Should be plenty of light for night riding, plus a decent day flash option.

Now here’s a weird thing. I’ve grumbled previously about the problems I’ve been having with Netlify deploying my site correctly. However, since switching to an Android phone, *each post I’ve published has been deployed immediately, first time*.

How does that work? Once formatted the markdown files are saved to Dropbox and thereafter the workflow is the same, regardless of whether I wrote it on iOS or Android.

I’m sure someone with far greater expertise would know why. For me, it’s some kind of dark magic.

Funny I should have [commented on getting to November without a frost](https://strandlines.blog/2021/11/01/no_frost_before_november/), as then we immediately had two or three during the first week of the month. Loads of redwings about now and the fieldfares have just arrived as well.

I’m trying out iA Writer on my Android phone. I had it on iOS way back, not long after it came out, if I recall correctly. The only reason I didn’t use it more was because the file handling didn’t work for me. And once I got in to using Drafts, where I could set up a workflow just how I liked it, there was no going back.

It’s perfectly fine to write with, however, it is doing something weird when I save. In order to run my Python script that saves a post with all the correct formatting, I start with a basic template file. I overwrite any text within that file, normally the previous post. But when I open the file there are a few lines from the previous version still there, at the bottom. Go figure.

I think I will try tweaking the Python script to clear all text from the template file once it has been copied to the formatted .md file [^1]. See if that does the trick.

[^1]: Just three lines of code needed using .truncate(0) to remove all text from the file.

To get to November without so much as a sniff of a frost. I couldn’t be certain, but that’s a first as far as I can recall.

This a test post to see if my Python script works correctly; copies this text, adds the front matter and saves the file with the correct name. If you are reading this on the blog, then all went according to plan.

With my move to an Android phone, the app I shall miss the most is Drafts. I have a ton of actions that I’ve made, although there are only a handful I use regularly. Replicating what they achieve will take some work but I hope my recent efforts with Python are going to come in handy.

Saving blog posts will be top of that list. The Drafts action I use adds the front matter with prompts for the url and tags, then saves it to Dropbox. Writing a Python script to enable me to do the same on Android – a weekend project?

Our dog had another seizure last night. Fortunately I was still up, so was able to be there while it happened. Again, he seems none the worse for wear, other than the exhaustion from the seizure and the drugs that make him a tad wobbly for a few hours. I slept downstairs on the sofa to keep en eye on him, as per the vets advice, but no further happenings. Now that he has had a second I guess it makes it more likely that there is an underlying problem. At nearly fifteen he has had a good innings so for however much longer we have him, we want to him to be happy and for us to enjoy his company.