I've had 51 birthdays so far (52 if you count the day I was born but for this purpose it doesn't count) but I can barely remember anything about any of them.

51 days about me. Fuck all. Now I never make a fuss about these things, I don't like it being about me (really Mat, that seems unlikely; but it's true).

Literally my only birthday memories, in full, are as follows

6) Hedgehog birthday cake made by my mum. Chocolate sugar cream icing, chocolate buttons for spines. I can still see it in my mind. Epic 70s cake game.

7) Joint party with my older cousin at my grandparents house in the garden. They tied balloons to the apple tree's otherwise empty branches, like plump fruit, no idea why but it stuck with me.

21) Drank 2 bottles of wine before even leaving the house on a night out at university. Very drunkenly told an unsuspecting friend (now Mrs B) in a shockingly unguarded moment, "one day, Mrs B (not her name at the time), you will be mine". Creepy or romantic? I've never quite reconciled.

Hangover and massive regret in the morning. It was another 3 months until we got together or even mentioned the incident. 32 years later, she's the one with regrets.

24) Cockney birthday. Had Pie and Mash in a proper east end place, and went to the greyhound racing track. End of the night, drunk (hmm there's a theme here) I decided to do a lap of honour, jumped the barrier and proceeded to do a lap of the track in the arena.

400m on sand, drunk, full pelt. First corner, sweet, second corner, uh oh, this is hard, legs going wobbly and only 150m in. Staff shouting at me to get off, lungs and legs burning, but then a cheer from the stands, drunken punters and my mates urging me on. I made it, barely, hopped the barrier and proceeded to throw up.

Apologies to the staff of Walthamstow stadium that night 😬 but you're only 24 once.

That's pretty much it, all I remember. I have another one soon but I can't imagine it will be very memorable. Not bothered but just goes to show, in my case, how these things don't matter in the long term, so don't expect much.

@TwoClownsEating Great writing hides in unexpected places. :)

A Caturday that's misbehaved.

#photo #donkey #animals

@wordsmith It reminded me how I quit The Bridge on the Drina, even though it is the most famous novel by Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić and a staple of education in some schools. I felt kind of scandalized that I hadn't been informed about certain scenes. My own reaction surprised me, though. CWs appeared only about a decade ago but are an expected default now.

8) You can move to another instance, taking your followers with you. You can also download all your posts, but you can't upload them onto your new instance.
9) There are many apps for Mastodon. I prefer not the official one but Ice Cubes, although I mainly just use the website version.
10) To send someone a private message, tag them, then choose "private mention" in the top left corner of the message window.

4) Your feed contains posts that your contacts boosted (reposted). If it looks overwhelming, you can switch off boosts from everybody or only from some of the accounts.
5) If your feed updates too often too fast, you can turn on the Slow Mode in your settings.
6) You can filter out posts based on the words they mention, by adding the word to your filters.
7) Most instances, including mastodon.social, have a post limit of 500 characters. There are instances that have 5000.

From a newcomer to a newcomer, here's what I've discovered and found useful:

1) If you can't find the answer, ask people. Post the question and add a hashtag. Also, follow the @FediTips account.
2) Notifications get sent to your email. You can disable that in settings.
3) Your feed is chronological. It shows posts from people (and hashtags!) that you follow.

I'll continue in the replies.

#Fediverse #NewbieToNewbie #tips #howto #Mastodon #newhere

I hadn't even realized how much I missed a good old photo feed until I visited pixelfed. It's like stepping out into nature where the peace in the air takes away the pain you didn't know you had.

#pixelfed #photography #socialmedia #Fediverse

@jake4480 Thank you so much for the links! It looks like what I've been looking for.

@sohkamyung Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for.

Followed a recommendation by @sohkamyung to ReactorMag, and really enjoyed this story. The premise reminded me of Hard to Be a God by the Strugatskys. The story is different and so captivating.
https://reactormag.com/blade-through-the-heart-carrie-vaughn/

#scifi #shortstory #fiction

@jendefer Thank you for sharing the link! I've experienced something new :) I know nothing about these games, although I've seen such dice before and they look like gems.
I loved your website. I feel like there's so much information, and yet at this point I understand almost nothing of it. It's a whole new world to me. It's intriguing.

@smarzie11 😸

@Firlefanz Thank you very much for the link to your story.
I've never even heard of AO3. It looks very interesting.

@ObsidianUrbex It looks like a writing prompt, very inspiring! :)

I love reading longer posts. I've been manually going through Mastodon accounts, and clicking blog links. I'm looking for short form or serialized fiction, but I'm just generally interested in everything well written. I've found some blogs, and I'm sure I'll find more, but I'll also be thankful for any recommendations.

#indieauthor #WritingCommunity #blog #fiction #essay #creativewriting #newhere

I created a pixelfed account a while ago but never really used it much. I'll be posting there again, mainly photos from my hikes and other time spent outdoors.

https://pixelfed.social/p/Alexphoto/937304816050877766

#pixelfed #myphoto #hiking #nature #outdoors #trail

News from the writing software world: LibreOffice Writer now supports Markdown. This means that you can now easily transfer your Markdown drafts between LibreOffice Writer and I Write Like.
https://blog.iwl.me/2026/03/08/libreoffice-markdown/

#iwl #writing #libreoffice #markdown

@ameliabellefort Hi Twin 🥲❤️

5) https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-get-more-followers-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

and

6) https://fedi.tips/making-your-posts-visible-to-a-wider-audience-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/ How to get your account and posts discovered.