Lina and the Frog
In the early afternoon Alice called me that Lina, our cat, had found a frog. When outside, she's on a leash, so Alice could stop her easily from harming the amphibian in our garden.
AirPrinting From Ubuntu
In the afternoon I configured Ubuntu 26.04 LTS to use a Brother HL L2350DW laserprinter via AirPrint over WiFi. Read about it in Setting up a Brother AirPrinter on Ubuntu.
Flow (2024)
Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.
In the evening Esme and I watched Flow. I liked the movie, wonderfully made, and rate it an 8 out of 10.
La Captura (2026)
Follows two cops who in a routine stop pull over a stolen car only to come face to face with one of the most dangerous criminals in the world.
In the evening Esme and I watched La Captura (Also known as "Facing El Chapo"). I liked the movie and rate it an 8 out of 10.
Evil Dead Burn (2026)
After the loss of her husband, a woman seeks solace with her in-laws. As one by one they transform into deadites, she comes to discover that the vows she took in life - survive even in death.
In the evening Jaiden, Alice, Esme, and I watched Evil Dead Burn. The movie was OK, and I rate it a 6 out of 10.
Lina in our garden
In the early evening, while Esme was trimming the ivy, I took a photo of Lina, our cat.
We keep Lina on a leash because we live close to a busy road. She's used to be on a leash and even joins us on walks in the neighborhood.
Michael (2026)
The early life of musician Michael Jackson, from the discovery of his talent as the lead of the Jackson Five to the artist whose creative ambition fueled a pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world.
In the evening Esme and I watched Michael. I liked the movie and rate it an 8 out of 10. The ending suggests there is going to be a sequel to which I look forward.
Logitech® Z150 Multimedia Speakers
In the early evening the Logitech multimedia speakers I ordered from Amazon last Sunday arrived. I connected them to the GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra AMD Ryzen™ 5 7640HS Mini PC running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. I had to increase the system volume otherwise the sound was too low. Next, I used Dopamine to play System of a Down's Toxicity.
Jackass: Best and Last (2026)
Follows the Jackass crew as they perform their final series of dangerous stunts and pranks, marking the end of the franchise.
In the evening Esme and I watched Jackass: Best and Last. We had a few good laughs and I rate the movie a 7 out of 10.
Satechi Slim W1 Wired Backlit Keyboard
The Satechi Slim W1 keyboard I ordered from Amazon the 19th of August arrived yesterday. But because we were late back from Amsterdam, just after 10PM, I had not really time to test the keyboard.
So today, in the afternoon, I tested the keyboard by typing this post. And I really like it. I turned off the backlight though, which can be accomplished by pressing a key on the keyboard a few times.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026)
Andy Sachs reunites with Miranda Priestly as they navigate their careers amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing.
In the evening Esme and I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2. Esme liked the movie but I didn't. I rate it a 5 out of 10.
Benchmarking tumblelog on a GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra
In the evening I timed the building of Plurrrr with tumblelog on a
GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra AMD Ryzen™ 5 7640HS Mini PC with 16GB of RAM
and 512GB of SSD running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. I used the time
command. For example for the Python version of tumblelog via Docker
I got:
real 0m4.389s
user 0m0.012s
sys 0m0.036s
And for the Perl version via Docker I got:
real 0m2.516s
user 0m0.018s
sys 0m0.026s
Both runs include the find command I use to determine the number of
days Plurrrr has. At the time of writing this is 1864 day entries in a
Markdown file of 3.1M. The tumblelog program generates for Plurrrr,
at the time of writing, 3065 HTML pages and 2 feeds. The speed on the
GMKtec NucBox is very impressive to me; on my Mac mini late 2014 it
takes more than 30 seconds to generate Plurrrr.
You can get tumbelog on
GitHub and start your own
microblog.
Mutiny (2026)
After his billionaire industrialist boss is murdered in front of him, Cole Reed is set up to take the fall for the crime -- leaving him on the run as he works to uncover an international conspiracy.
In the evening Esme and I watched Mutiny. I liked the movie and rate it a 7 out of 10.
GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra
In the afternoon the GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra AMD Ryzen™ 5 7640HS Mini PC with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD arrived. The device was ordered the 18th of August and was shipped from Germany.
In the early evening I connected the device. I had to wait for Jaiden because I had to borrow her USB keyboard and she was out. The keyboard I had also ordered would arrive on Friday.
After a quick set up of Windows 11 I started a download of Ubuntu
26.04 LTS Desktop. I plan to run
Ubuntu on the device. I used certutil -hashfile to verify the SHA256
digest of the downloaded ISO file.
Next, I downloaded balenaEtcher to flash the Ubuntu ISO file onto a Philips USB flash drive. When done I rebooted the mini PC but it didn't boot the flash drive. So I rebooted again and immediately pressed F7 repeatedly. Now a menu showed up and I could select the flash drive to boot from.
However, during the installation of Ubuntu a window popped up regarding a UEFI dbx update. I confirmed this and when it asked if I wanted to restart I selected no. And then it looked like there was no progress installing Ubuntu, so I went down to watch a movie with Esme hoping it would be done after the movie.
Toy Story 5 (2026)
Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of the gang's jobs are challenged when they're introduced to electronics, a new threat to playtime.
In the evening Esme and I watched Toy Story 5. I was expecting more from it and hence rate it a 6 out of 10.
Installing Ubuntu part 2
After the movie, I tried to restart the mini PC because the installation of Ubuntu was stuck, but no luck. So I pulled the power, reconnected, and booted from the USB flash drive once more. Again I went to through the installation steps of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and this time, after some waiting, it was successful.
Minions & Monsters
Follows the Minions in 1920s Hollywood as they search for frightening creatures for their monster movie, partner with a green creature, and must save the planet after unleashing monsters.
In the evening Alice, Esme, and I watched Minions & Monsters. I had a few good laughs and rate this movie a 7 out of 10.
Disclosure Day (2026)
If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?
In the evening Alice, Esme, and I started to watch The Invite. But soon we decided to stop watching it: too chaotic, too much yelling. So I decided to switch to Disclosure Day. Alice didn't want to watch and went to her room hence Esme and I watched it together. It was a weak science fiction story and I rate it a 6 out of 10.
A Trade of Blood
The heir to one of the Empire’s most powerful families sits in jail, accused of murder. His hands are covered in the victim’s blood, and he can neither deny his guilt nor explain his actions.
But if the great detective Ana Dolabra cannot save him from the noose, the farming canton of Sapirdad will explode into war, threatening to plunge the whole Empire into starvation and chaos.
As Ana investigates—her assistant Dinios Kol, as ever, acting as her eyes and ears—she fears her task is even more daunting than it seemed. For this murder is just the latest in a deeper, subtler web of death, woven by a mastermind with an ancient weapon at his disposal.
With their customary skill, Ana and Din pursue their adversary through the canton’s wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses. Yet even they are not prepared to learn the horrifying secret behind their opponent’s powers.
In the evening I started in A Trade of Blood, Ana and Din Mysteries book 3 by Robert Jackson Bennett.