About

Oh hi, I'm Kev.

See that guy just up there? 👆 That's me (I do smile ocassionally).

Anyway...how are you doing?

Um, I'm good thanks, but why are you chatting to me?

Well, dear reader, we're chatting because I enjoy talking with the people who read this blog.

So what brings you to my little corner of the web?

I was hoping to find some interesting stuff to read.

Great. If you're at all interested in web design, blogging, technology, watch collecting or homesteading, there's probably something for you here.

Take a look at my homepage for a chronological list of posts. If there's something particular you're looking for, try searching instead.

If you're so inclined, you can also keep on scrollin' down this page to learn a little more about me.

This was weird, but thanks...I think. 🤷‍♂️

NP 👌

Hi there 👋 my name is Kev Quirk, welcome to my little corner of the Internet.

On this page you can learn a little about me, my interests and what makes me tick.

During the day I work in the Information Security industry. I’m currently an executive at Bank of America, where I lead a global team in the identity/social engineering space.

I have worked in the InfoSec industry for over a decade now. Prior to this I was in the British Army where I served all over the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

I live in the beautiful Welsh countryside where I share a 2.5 acre smallholding with lots of animals and a few humans - I’m the father of two of them, and husband to the other one.

Table of contents:

  1. By hobbies & interests
    1.1 Motorbikes
    1.2 Watch collecting
    1.3 Pets
  2. Colophon
    2.1 Design
    2.2 Design inspiration
    2.3 Misc design info

My hobbies & interests

This blog is probably the hobby I spend most of my time on. I really enjoy sharing my thoughts here, and the conversations that come as a result of those thoughts.

When I’m not sat at my keyboard, I spend most of my spare time either looking after our many pets, or managing our 2.5 acre smallholding. I also enjoy both riding and working on my motorbikes, collecting watches, and all the usual stuff like spending time with friends etc. I'm also partial to reading a good book.

Motorbikes

I have a deep love of motorbikes. I’ve been riding for many years and I'm an advanced motorcyclist. I've owned many motorbikes over the years, from large tourers, to naked sportsbikes. I currently have a collection of 3 bikes:

Me on my Royal Enfield
Me on my Royal Enfield Interceptor 650
My motorbikes lined up on the drive
My motorbikes

Watch collecting

I’ve been collecting watches for a couple years now. I have a particular penchant for Casio watches, but I do have many other brands in my collection. I tend to gravitate toward vintage digital watches and field watches. Although, I do have a few divers and dress watches in my collection too.

I prefer to collect more affordable watches, with the most expensive watch in my collection being around £650.

It's impossible to pick a single watch that's my favourite. Some are nostalgic, others I've had for a long time, then others are just plain gorgeous. My collection includes a rating so you can see which are my favourites.

Um, hi Kev...me again. 👋 Can I just interject for a second?

Oh, hi again reader person. How can I help?

Soooooo I kinda like what I'm readin' here, but I probably won't remember to come back and check for new posts.

Is there a way I can subscribe to your posts?

Of course! I have an RSS feed, or you can subscribe via email.

If you want to subscribe via email, there's a sign up form at the bottom of every post.

Actually, you know what, I'll drop a signup form right below this chat so you don't have to go hunting. How's that?

That's great, thanks.

Bye for now.

See ya 👋

Here's that sign up form I was talking about...

Enter your email address below and you will get an email whenever new posts are published.

OK, back to the about page...

Pets

We have lots of pets in Casa del Quirk. There’s 2 dogs, a blind cat, 6 chickens (as of May 2024, it's now 12, actually) and 4 (yes, FOUR) fish tanks which contain approximately 150 fish and easily a few hundred shrimp.

Our dogs, waiting for scraps at the dinner table
Our dogs, waiting for scraps at the dinner table

One of my favourite times of day is during the evening when the kids are in bed, the house is quiet and I can just sit there, watching my fish.

My Gold Sevrum
My gold sevrum, one of my favourite fish

Colophon

OK, enough about me. Let’s talk about the technicalities of how this website is put together. I’ve had a number of people ask me question like “what do you use for x?” So I hope this section will help.

This site is built with Kirby, is hosted on a VPS with Ionos and uses a custom theme that I built myself (with a lot of help/advice from the Kirby forums and Manu Moreale). Heavier content, like custom fonts, is served from Bunny CDN.

Design

My idea for the design of this site was to be brutalist, with a twist of whimsy to make it more fun. I think this site is beautiful in its simplicity. There are a few bells & whistles, but the site is extremely content focussed.

Design inspiration

In my opinion there isn't a single website on the internet that is completely unique. Every site harps back to inspiration from other sites the designer has seen, whether that's a conscious decision or otherwise.

Here's some of the sites that have inspired the design of this site:

Misc design info

The font stack used on this site consists of the General Sans variable font as the primary font, followed by a local stack from Modern Font Stacks. I use the Neo-Grotesque stack.

The colour palette is of my own choosing, and I think it works quite well:

  - #000000

  - #222222

  - #2d2d2d

  - #eeeeee

  - #efefef

  - #fafafa

  - #ffdd55

  - #aaccff

  - #f495c6

  - #929cf9

  - #c3ec81