#Introduction (April 2025 edition)
Hi, I’m Kate. I’m a 41-year-old software developer based in the south-west of England. I’m best known for my National Grid: Live site at https://grid.iamkate.com.
I’m the Development Director at https://itseeze.com, where in 2007 I created a CMS that’s now used by thousands of sites across the UK and Ireland.
I’ve been in a relationship with @Clare@fosstodon.org since 2008, and we married in 2013. Same-sex marriage wasn’t legal yet, but we found a loophole: I’m trans.
Listen, it’s very simple: In Britain we use the metric system, except for beer and milk, which come in pints. But not plant milk — that comes in litres.
Oh, and distances are in miles. But only if they’re too far to walk — if you can walk it it’s in metres. If you’re driving then your fuel efficiency is in miles-per-gallon, but petrol is sold in litres.
Oh, and your height is in feet and inches. If you don’t care much about your weight it’s in stone (but not pounds — no-one can remember how many pounds are in a stone and it’s hard to read the little tick marks on analogue scales). If you do care about your weight then your digital scales tell you it in kilograms.
Oh, and if there’s a heatwave then tabloids will forecast a “100°F scorcher”. But if it’s cold then it’s an “arctic blast” with “widespread temperatures below 0°C”.
I hope this clears things up.
It genuinely bothers me that this setting doesn’t cause Apple Maps to use metres for walking directions and miles for vehicle directions. A yard is what northerners have instead of gardens, not a unit of distance!
Listen, it’s very simple: In Britain we use the metric system, except for beer and milk, which come in pints. But not plant milk — that comes in litres.
Oh, and distances are in miles. But only if they’re too far to walk — if you can walk it it’s in metres. If you’re driving then your fuel efficiency is in miles-per-gallon, but petrol is sold in litres.
Oh, and your height is in feet and inches. If you don’t care much about your weight it’s in stone (but not pounds — no-one can remember how many pounds are in a stone and it’s hard to read the little tick marks on analogue scales). If you do care about your weight then your digital scales tell you it in kilograms.
Oh, and if there’s a heatwave then tabloids will forecast a “100°F scorcher”. But if it’s cold then it’s an “arctic blast” with “widespread temperatures below 0°C”.
I hope this clears things up.
My mum popped round this morning so we could go for a walk (although they live only two kilometres away, my dad hasn’t joined her since their visit in 2017 when I came out as trans). She arrived early, so waited in the lounge while I finished doing my make-up. When I went into the lounge I found her cuddling the giant blåhaj from Clare’s work that we’re temporarily looking after.
We walked down to the sea and then up to the ponds in a nearby village (pictured), stopping at the old water mill for ice cream — they have a couple of vegan options. Limiting my time on social media — I’ve set my phone to restrict me to 15 minutes of Instagram per day — and getting outside in the sun has really helped lift my mood this weekend.
A couple of weeks ago a friend introduced me to RØRY’s music. It’s been many years since I’ve enjoyed a new singer this much. We’re going to see her on tour in November (27 years after the last time I went to a live show).
Stylistically much of her music is catchy pop-rock, but it stands out due to its brutally honest autobiographical lyrics. (Take this as a content warning.)
Her debut EP, Good Die Young, is close to perfection. It opens with a devastating monologue about obsessing over the chances she missed when she was younger (she was 37 at the time), and continues with songs about her alcoholism, her wish to go back to a simpler time, the loss of her mother to cancer (when she was 22) and a friend to depression, and a desperate plea to “help your friends get sober”. The album pivots after she imagines her own funeral, and she starts to celebrate the “small victories” of her recovery (getting dressed, making her bed, winning against her head), before the defiant conclusion as she tells her younger self “hold on, I know it’s gonna get better, this is a song not a suicide letter”.
Her second EP, Family Drama, takes on a similar structure, including an opening monologue on the nature of family in all its forms. She addresses the trauma her father caused, and in one devastating song imagines an alternative version of herself who had a supportive family. In a cathartic conclusion she imagines “the apology i’ll never receive” from her father (they’re no longer in contact), but forgives him anyway.
Following these EPs, her debut album, RESTORATION, is more forward-looking, and more stylistically varied, from the aggressive opening “if pain could talk, what would it say?” to the powerful “hold on” where she raps with her younger self. Trauma is ever-present, but now combined with a kind of spiritual self-belief in who she can now be: “everything you lost will be restored”.
Just perfection, from start to finish.
#Introduction (April 2025 edition)
Hi, I’m Kate. I’m a 41-year-old software developer based in the south-west of England. I’m best known for my National Grid: Live site at https://grid.iamkate.com.
I’m the Development Director at https://itseeze.com, where in 2007 I created a CMS that’s now used by thousands of sites across the UK and Ireland.
I’ve been in a relationship with @Clare@fosstodon.org since 2008, and we married in 2013. Same-sex marriage wasn’t legal yet, but we found a loophole: I’m trans.
Kate Morley