Since Christmas, I’ve been busy cultivating a few new things for this site. None of these really warranted a standalone blog post—not because they are minor additions, but because they are designed to speak for themselves.

When I migrated to Hugo last year, I chose it specifically for its flexibility. I wanted a space for content that doesn’t fit the “standard blog post” mold—the kind of digital gardening that requires custom layouts or specific functionality to be truly useful.

We all generate a massive amount of personal data, often without realizing it. Usually, that data stays buried in a third-party service or we just don’t realize we have it—like the history hidden away in years and years of emails. These new sections, which I like to think of as enriched logs, are my way of reclaiming and unearthing that information. Whether it’s surfacing historical data from my email archive or localising my data from external services, I’m now visualizing and contextualizing it in a way that’s actually meaningful to me, and perhaps you.

Here’s a rundown of what’s growing in the garden:

1. Foot notes

   I’m not a runner, nor would I say that I particularly like it. Yet, for the last few years, I have managed to maintain the habit. I haven’t progressed as quickly as I would like pace-wise, but for now, I’m happy that I have continued to show up.

   Here I keep track of my annual performance to remind myself of what I can achieve—totals, landmark runs, personal bests, and anything else that takes my fancy.

2. Yule log

   At the time of first writing this, Boxing Day 2025, since living at Kuokkatie, I will have presided over eight Christmases (16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25), the latter half of which I would say I was totally in charge of.

   Yet, for all of those years, I find myself asking the same questions each year… “How long do I cook the turkey?, “How long do I defrost the turkey?” and so on…

   So I thought it would be a nice idea to keep for myself a little log of these events going forward. That way in following years, I can easily answer those questions!

3. Tracking the Fellowship: A long-expected screening

   Peter Jackson’s cinematic portrayal of The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite film series. Writing this in 2026, it’s staggering to think the trilogy began its release 25 years ago; yet, each time I watch it, I’m impressed by how well it stands up against modern films—it could have been released yesterday.

   Seeing them in the cinema is an opportunity not to be missed. To my delight, whether for a milestone anniversary or just a bit of extra box-office profit, my local cinema chain has been screening the extended versions. One does not simply walk into a theater and find these masterpieces playing—so whenever they are on, I am there.

   Here I keep a log of those times.

4. Returning to the Shire: An (un)expected journey

   Unfortunately, The Hobbit trilogy didn’t hit the same heights as its predecessor for me. There are certainly things to like—I enjoy the story parts that bridge the gap to The Lord of the Rings (we see the trolls turning to stone, and then we walk by them in the Fellowship of the Ring), and Martin Freeman is a cracking Bilbo. Any scene centered on Bilbo, Gollum, or Gandalf held up well.

   Still, if they are on at the cinema I shall go and watch them. Here I keep a log of those times.

5. Film log

   To compile my viewing logs for the extended versions of LOTR and The Hobbit, I began gathering information from my email archives. I soon realized I had the history of almost all my cinema-going preserved there. So I decided: why not create a complete log of every cinema visit?

   I built a spreadsheet for every entry I could find in my emails—including a few from the UK—and even leveraging GDPR data requests to Finnkino to fill in the blanks. I exported the data to a JSON file and enriched it using the OMDb API. Beyond the simple list, I’ve made the data searchable and extracted some fun stats. Enjoy!