Tech. Content. Noise.

4/23/2026, 6:48:41 AM

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:48:41 GMT

<sup><a href="/images/24v.jpg" target="_blank"><i>EMBIGGEN!</i></a></sup>

These photos were taken 24 hours apart. Gotta love a Colorado spring 😂

Input: Week 16, 2026

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:29:27 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 19 Apr 2026. As always, best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Finished I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks.
Started and finished <mark>Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge by Mark Yarm.</mark>
Still reading Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee.

Music

Top artists this week:

Taylor Swift (25 plays)
Green Day (10 plays)
Beastie Boys (9 plays)
Silversun Pickups (7 plays)
Best Coast (5 plays)
Blood Red Shoes (5 plays)
Olivia Rodrigo (4 plays)
The Clash (4 plays)
BLACKPINK (3 plays)
State Champs (3 plays)

Movies & TV

The Man in the High Castle S02E07 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S02E06 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S02E05 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S02E04 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S02E03 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S02E02 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S02E01 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E10 (watched 19 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E09 (watched 19 Apr)
The Pitt S02E14 (watched 18 Apr)
<mark>Survivor S50E08 (watched 18 Apr)</mark>
Scrubs (2026) S01E06 (watched 14 Apr)
<mark>The Audacity S01E01 (watched 14 Apr)</mark>

Comics

[^1]: This was a reverse highlight, so bad that I quit this book already. Marvel needs to back up an armored truck to Jonathan Hickman's house and give him whatever he wants to come back and save the X-books.

Input: Week 15, 2026

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:56:33 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 12 Apr 2026. As always, best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Finished Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher.
Started and finished <mark>The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.</mark>
Started I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks.
Still reading Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee.

Music

Top artists this week:

Beastie Boys (6 plays)
Taylor Swift (4 plays)
Green Day (4 plays)
Blood Red Shoes (3 plays)
Fall Out Boy (2 plays)
blink-182 (2 plays)
Foo Fighters (2 plays)
Silversun Pickups (2 plays)
Eagles (2 plays)
Royal Blood (2 plays)

Movies & TV

For All Mankind S05E03 (watched 11 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E08 (watched 11 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E07 (watched 11 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E06 (watched 10 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E05 (watched 10 Apr)
Survivor S50E07 (watched 9 Apr)
High Potential S02E15 (watched 9 Apr)
Daredevil: Born Again S02E04 (watched 9 Apr)
Will Trent S04E14 (watched 8 Apr)
NCIS: Sydney S03E14 (watched 8 Apr)
<mark>Rooster S01E05 (watched 7 Apr)</mark>
Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen S15E02 (watched 7 Apr)
Top Chef S23E05 (watched 7 Apr)
<mark>Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord S01E02 (watched 7 Apr)</mark>
<mark>Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord S01E01 (watched 7 Apr)</mark>

Comics

Input: Week 14, 2026

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:46:55 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 5 Apr 2026. As always, best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Finished (finally) The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.
<mark>Started and finished Neuromancer by William Gibson (again).</mark>
Started Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher.
Still reading Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee.

Music

Top artists this week:

Beastie Boys (8 plays)
Green Day (8 plays)
Taylor Swift (7 plays)
Fall Out Boy (4 plays)
BLACKPINK (4 plays)
Foo Fighters (2 plays)
Rancid (2 plays)
Silversun Pickups (2 plays)
State Champs (2 plays)
Fleetwood Mac (1 play)

Movies & TV

The Man in the High Castle S01E04 (watched 5 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E03 (watched 5 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E02 (watched 5 Apr)
The Man in the High Castle S01E01 (watched 5 Apr)
Firefly S01E14 (watched 4 Apr) [^1]
<mark>Firefly S01E13 (watched 4 Apr)</mark>
Firefly S01E12 (watched 4 Apr)
High Potential S02E14 (watched 3 Apr)
High Potential S02E13 (watched 3 Apr)
<mark>The Pitt S02E13 (watched 3 Apr)</mark>
For All Mankind S05E02 (watched 3 Apr)
High Potential S02E12 (watched 2 Apr)
Will Trent S04E13 (watched 2 Apr)
Survivor S50E06 (watched 2 Apr)
<mark>NCIS: Sydney S03E13 (watched 1 Apr)</mark>
Daredevil: Born Again S02E03 (watched 1 Apr)
Daredevil: Born Again S02E02 (watched 1 Apr)
Last Chance Kitchen S15E01 (watched 31 Mar)
Top Chef S23E04 (watched 31 Mar)
<mark>Rooster S01E04 (watched 30 Mar)</mark>
<mark>Paradise S02E08 (watched 30 Mar)</mark>

Comics

[^1]: IMDB incorrectly uses the aired order for Firefly, so the episode numbers won't agree with what I have listed here but the titles are correct.

Input: Week 13, 2026

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 01:43:20 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 29 Mar 2026. As always, best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.
Still reading Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee.

Music

Top artists this week:

Dave Matthews Band (8 plays)
Taylor Swift (7 plays)
Muse (5 plays)
Beastie Boys (5 plays)
BLACKPINK (5 plays)
Green Day (5 plays)
Silversun Pickups (4 plays)
State Champs (4 plays)
The Smashing Pumpkins (3 plays)
Queens of the Stone Age (3 plays)

Movies & TV

Sucker Punch (watched 29 Mar)
Firefly S01E11 (watched 29 Mar) [^1]
Firefly S01E10 (watched 29 Mar)
Firefly S01E09 (watched 29 Mar)
Firefly S01E08 (watched 29 Mar)
<mark>The Matrix (watched 28 Mar)</mark>
The Pitt S02E12 (watched 27 Mar)
Survivor S50E05 (watched 27 Mar)
Top Chef S23E03 (watched 27 Mar)
Will Trent S04E12 (watched 25 Mar)
DTF St Louis S01E01 (watched 23 Mar)
<mark>Rooster S01E03 (watched 23 Mar)</mark>
<mark>Paradise S02E07 (watched 23 Mar)</mark>

Comics

[^1]: IMDB incorrectly uses the aired order for Firefly, so the episode numbers won't agree with what I have listed here but the titles are correct.

Opening Day

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:15:00 GMT

I love baseball season. There's really no other sport like it - 162 games a season, a game nearly every day from April to September.

It's absolutely better if you can attend in person (like pretty much every sport, except the NFL) - just roll up, find a ticket either at the window or from someone outside, grab some peanuts, and settle in for an afternoon. But for me it loses very little on TV, or even the radio. There's something almost meditative about the rhythms of the game: the routine of pitches, hits, and outs; the background hum of crowd noise broken by the occasional crack of the bat; the commentary, which ranges from game events to baseball trivia to who knows what.

And while any day with baseball is a good day, Opening Day is the very best baseball day of the year. There are 162 games in front of you, and anything is possible.

Go Cards!

Input: Week 12, 2026

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 21:56:28 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 22 Mar 2026. As always, best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.
Still reading Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee.

Music

Top artists this week:

Kacey Musgraves (32 plays)
Taylor Swift (19 plays)
The Distillers (2 plays)
My Chemical Romance (2 plays)
Ramones (2 plays)
The All-American Rejects (2 plays)
Sugarcult (2 plays)
Måneskin (1 play)
Connor Price (1 play)
Temples (1 play)

Movies & TV

Firefly S01E07 (watched 22 Mar) [^1]
<mark>Firefly S01E06 (watched 22 Mar)</mark>
Firefly S01E05 (watched 22 Mar)
Scrubs (2026) S01E05 (watched 22 Mar)
Scrubs (2026) S01E04 (watched 22 Mar)
Rooster S01E02 (watched 22 Mar)
Firefly S01E04 (watched 22 Mar)
Firefly S01E03 (watched 21 Mar)
Firefly S01E02 (watched 21 Mar)
Firefly S01E01 (watched 21 Mar)
NCIS Sydney S03E11 (watched 20 Mar)
NCIS Sydney S03E10 (watched 20 Mar)
<mark>The Pitt S02E11 (watched 20 Mar)</mark>
Rooster S01E01 (watched 19 Mar)
Survivor S50E04 (watched 19 Mar)
Will Trent S04E11 (watched 18 Mar)
Top Chef S23E02 (watched 18 Mar)
Scrubs (2026) S01E03 (watched 17 Mar)
Will Trent S04E10 (watched 17 Mar)
Will Trent S04E09 (watched 16 Mar)
Will Trent S04E08 (watched 16 Mar)
<mark>Paradise S02E06 (watched 16 Mar)</mark>

Comics

[^1]: IMDB incorrectly uses the aired order for Firefly, so the episode numbers won't agree with what I have listed here but the titles are correct.

Input: Week 11, 2026

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 20:57:07 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 8 Mar 2026. As always, best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Finished The Stand by Stephen King.
Started and finished <mark>Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue.</mark>
Started Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee.
Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.

Music

Top artists this week:

INXS (23 plays)
Frank Turner (19 plays)
Olivia Rodrigo (14 plays)
AC/DC (6 plays)
Grey Henson (4 plays)
Auli'i Cravalho (3 plays)
Nine Inch Nails (3 plays)
Yves (3 plays)
Kate Rockwell (2 plays)
Avantika (2 plays)

Movies & TV

Scrubs S01E02 (watched 14 Mar)
Scrubs S01E01 (watched 14 Mar)
NCIS: Sydney S03E09 (watched 13 Mar)
Paradise S02E05 (watched 13 Mar)
The Pitt S02E10 (watched 13 Mar)
<mark>Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E10 (watched 12 Mar)</mark>
Survivor S50E03 (watched 12 Mar)

Comics

[^1]: If I had a reverse highlight of the week, this would be it. Bad characterisation, bad art, what a mess.

Input: Week 10, 2026

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:09:31 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 8 Mar 2026. Best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Started The Stand[^1] by Stephen King.
Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.

Music

This section is a bit broken as I was on Apple Music instead of Spotify this week - almost entirely listening to my punk/pop-punk playlist.

Movies & TV

Paradise S02E04 (watched 7 Mar)
Top Chef S23E01 (watched 7 Mar)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E09 (watched 7 Mar)
The Pitt S02E09 (watched 6 Mar)
Survivor S50E02 (watched 6 Mar)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E08 (watched 4 Mar)
The Traitors S04E12 (watched 4 Mar)

Comics

[^1]: Yes, again. Probably once every year or two for the past 30 years.

Input: Week 9, 2026

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 20:14:52 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 1 Mar 2026. Best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.

Music

Top artists this week:

The Black Keys (31 plays)
BLACKPINK (8 plays)
Sex Pistols (3 plays)
Nine Inch Nails (2 plays)
Goldfinger (2 plays)
Ramones (2 plays)
Social Distortion (2 plays)
Teenage Bottlerocket (1 play)
The Linda Lindas (1 play)
Buzzcocks (1 play)

Movies & TV

The Traitors finale had our whole house yelling at the TV - in a good way! Top stuff. Hopefully the move to casting non-celebrities will result in more frequent seasons. Survivor 50 looks like it will be top-tier.

<mark>The Traitors S04E11 (watched 27 Feb)</mark>
<mark>Survivor S50E01 (watched 27 Feb)</mark>
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins S01E02 (watched 25 Feb)
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins S01E01 (watched 25 Feb)
<mark>A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S01E06 (watched 25 Feb)</mark>
Paradise S02E03 (watched 23 Feb)
Paradise S02E02 (watched 23 Feb)
Paradise S02E01 (watched 23 Feb)

Comics

Input: Week 8, 2026

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 22:09:53 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 22 Feb 2026. Best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan.

Music

Top artists this week:

The Black Keys (43 plays)
Green Day (15 plays)
Akylas (2 plays)
Antigoni (2 plays)
Jet (2 plays)
Taylor Swift (2 plays)
The Strokes (2 plays)
Queens of the Stone Age (2 plays)
Leléka (1 play)
Atvara (1 play)

Movies & TV

<mark>Baby Driver (watched 22 Feb)</mark>
Will Trent S04E07 (watched 21 Feb)
Will Trent S04E06 (watched 21 Feb)
Will Trent S04E05 (watched 21 Feb)
The Pitt S02E07 (watched 20 Feb)
The Traitors S04E10 (watched 20 Feb)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E07 (watched 19 Feb)
<mark>A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S01E05 (watched 18 Feb)</mark>
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S01E04 (watched 18 Feb)
The Stand (2020) S01E09 (watched 16 Feb)

Comics

The big question

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:31:53 GMT

I have truly lost count of how many times I have read the same advice about the salary question.

There are so many posts on the topic of discussing salary expectations with a potential employer, and without fail they will include some variation on this advice:

The one who gives a number first loses.

The problem with statements like these is this: The idea that there's a winner and a loser is a viewpoint that does nobody involved any favours.

Let's take a look at everyone's motivation in this scenario:

The employer needs a person who has the skills and capabilities necessary to accomplish the goals of the team/business unit/company. They have a salary range, and they know what that salary range is.
- That range might be influenced by published salary banding, parity amongst team members, their financial year budget, Mercury being in Gatorade, whatever. The number exists. (Whether or not the number is in line with the market is a separate question.)
The candidate is looking for a new role for $reason - the potential reasons are many and varied. They too have a salary range, but they may or may not know what that range is.
- In my experience, "more than my last job", "I have a feeling I am underpaid where I am so I'm testing that theory and asking for quite a bit more", and "I saw a salary guide that said X" are common ones here. But then again, so are "I'm not motivated by money, I just want my weekends back" and "I would take a pay cut to escape the soul-crushing misery of my current job."
- The employer's salary range is sometimes Schrodinger's Cat-like - from the candidate's perspective it is simultaneously "plenty" and "nowhere near enough", until the point where the candidate actually hears it; at that point, the waveform collapses and the reaction to the number in comparison with a pre-existing (potentially unarticulated) expectation determines the outcome.
Ideally, the employer's range and the candidate's align, and away we go.

Why employers ask this

It's not a big secret, it's not rocket science, and it's not to undercut you in a race to the bottom. It's simple common sense: if the employer and the candidate are not aligned on salary, it's simple respect for each other's time to get that out of the way early.

Let's say that as the employer my range is $140k-$160k for a role, because we have published salary bands and that's what the band is for this role. You had $180k in mind because you have bills to pay, or because you're on $170k now, or for whatever reason. Doesn't matter what the reason is. We're not aligned, so this isn't the right role for you and maybe we should have a chat once a more senior role comes along. Would you rather find this out:

A. During the very first call, or B. After two weeks and three rounds of interviews?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

The real solution

Here's the thing: the real solution is not "fuck it, candidates should say the number first". Of course not! The employer/candidate dynamic has a massive power asymmetry as it is. The real solution is this:

The employer loses nothing by giving a number first.

In fact, the real answer to that question above is:

C. The salary is in the job ad, so you know whether or not to even apply.

There's a few reasons why employers don't make salaries public, but a really common one is that they have to offer new staff more than their existing staff are making in the same role. If the market for a senior engineer is x, but they have senior engineers on 0.8x, they can't publish that salary without getting pointed questions. Probably pretty deserved ones about the lack of transparency, why yearly increases aren't keeping pace with the market, and why new people are being treated differently to people who have stuck around and delivered.

My advice:

Employers, get your house in order. Put salaries in your job ads. Tell people in the first call, "our range for this role is $X to $Y, is that aligned with your expectations?" If telling your staff what you're offering new people would cause discontent because they're not being paid consistent with what you offer new staff, fix that.
Candidates, ask what the range is. Expect companies to put it in their job ads. And yes, if they insist on playing coy about numbers, save yourself the time and energy and move on.

Framing the issue as win/lose is just wasting everyone's time.

Input: Week 7, 2026

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 21:38:09 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 8 Feb 2026. Best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Finished The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand by Christopher Golden
Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan

Music

Top artists this week:

The Black Keys (37 plays)
Pixies (27 plays)
Green Day (13 plays)
Mandy, Indiana (11 plays)
KATSEYE (3 plays)
Kelly Clarkson (2 plays)
The Roots (2 plays)
Pony (1 play)
Wet Leg (1 play)
Lily Allen (1 play)

Movies & TV

The Stand S01E07 (watched 15 Feb)
The Stand S01E06 (watched 15 Feb)
Will Trent S04E04 (watched 13 Feb)
<mark>The Pitt S02E06 (watched 13 Feb)</mark>
The Traitors S04E09 (watched 13 Feb)
<mark>Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E06 (watched 12 Feb)</mark>
The Stand S01E05 (watched 10 Feb)
The Stand S01E04 (watched 9 Feb)
The Stand S01E03 (watched 9 Feb)

Comics

Input: Week 6, 2026

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 04:18:05 GMT

What I watched, listened to, and read for the week ending 8 Feb 2026. Best things <mark>highlighted</mark>.

Books

Started The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand by Christopher Golden & Brian Keene
Still reading The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan

Music

Top artists this week:

Dr. Dre (13 plays)
Bruce Springsteen (11 plays)
Silversun Pickups (9 plays)
The Lemonheads (3 plays)
Pink Floyd (3 plays)
NOFX (2 plays)
Olivia Rodrigo (2 plays)
Taylor Swift (1 play)
The Black Keys (1 play)
Dave Matthews Band (1 play)

Movies & TV

<mark>Star Trek (2009) (watched 8 Feb)</mark>
The Pitt S02E05 (watched 6 Feb)
The Pitt S02E04 (watched 6 Feb)
The Traitors S04E08 (watched 6 Feb)
The Stand (2020) S01E02 (watched 5 Feb)
<mark>Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E05 (watched 5 Feb)</mark>
Fallout S02E08 (watched 4 Feb)
The Stand (2020) S01E01 (watched 2 Feb)
The Stand (1994) S01E04 (watched 2 Feb)

Comics

Fifteen years

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 23:11:14 GMT

As of today, it's been fifteen years since I last had a drink.

The reasons why are fairly simple - my drinking was a problem, we had a kid on the way, and I was asked to stop. That sounds glib, but it was not a very complicated decision. I could have a family, or I could keep on going the way I had been. So I gave away every drop of alcohol in the house, and I stopped.

It's not something I really think about much these days. Early on, I really missed a glass of red with a good meal, or the taste of that first sip of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but non-alcoholic beer has come a long way since then. (There's no substitute for a real glass of shiraz, alas.) In the first couple of years I had horrible slip dreams - I'd wake up guilty and ashamed, convinced I'd had a drink (or ten). Sometimes it took hours for that feeling to go away. Those dreams are few and far between nowadays, thankfully.

I'm never really tempted anymore. I'm too stubborn, frankly, and there's too much that I wouldn't want to give away. Neither of my kids have ever seen me drunk, or hungover. It's been a long time since I've watched the sun come up with that uneasy mix of regret and dread. I always remember what happened last night. And on a hot day, sparkling water hits that same sweet spot an ice cold beer used to. (Never did get rid of my beer gut though, dammit.)

What I can say on day 5,479 is the same thing I said on day 1: I can't tell you what tomorrow will bring, but I'm not going to drink today.

2/7/2026, 8:10:39 PM

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 09:10:39 GMT

This season of The Traitors is so, so incredibly good. The level of gameplay this time around is top notch and the twists are very clever.

Also, I have to have this t-shirt.

2/5/2026, 8:03:39 AM

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 21:03:39 GMT

Each day brings a new surprise. Which desktops will Tahoe have randomly reshuffled my apps to this time?

I vaguely remember when window management on macOS just worked. Those were the days.

Fantastic free protest art. ↣

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 20:51:54 GMT

Amen.

Input: Week 5, 2026

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:16:25 GMT

Trying out something new. <mark>Highlighted</mark> items were a particular standout.

Books

Finished The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan
Started The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan

Music

Top artists this week:

Green Day (23 plays)
Arctic Monkeys (14 plays)
Joyce Manor (10 plays)
Childish Gambino (8 plays)
Jeremy Allen White (7 plays)
Bruce Springsteen (5 plays)
Calling All Captains (2 plays)

Movies & TV

The Stand S01E03 (watched 1 Feb)
The Stand S01E02 (watched 1 Feb)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S01E04 (watched 31 Jan)
The Stand S01E01 (watched 31 Jan)
<mark>The Traitors S04E07 (watched 31 Jan)</mark>
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S01E02 (watched 28 Jan)

Comics

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:31:48 GMT

1/25/2026, 9:15:57 PM

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 10:15:57 GMT

Things Claude and I built this week.

1/24/2026, 11:49:07 AM

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:49:07 GMT

Hard to believe this album just turned 20. All killer, no filler.

Up Banking API skill

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 02:57:11 GMT

Earlier today in my travels (i.e while reading my RSS feeds) I came across skills.sh, a new Vercel project to streamline the process of discovering and installing new skills for AI agents.

A clever idea which prompted me to quickly put together a skill for interacting with the Up Banking API - you can have your agent of choice get balances, list transactions, analyse patterns, and generally help you understand your money.

Installing via skills.sh is as simple as:

$ npx skills add tcn33/up-banking-api-skill

Or you can check it out on GitHub.

It's the vibe

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 01:30:47 GMT

import Img_2239 from "@assets/images/IMG_2239.PNG"; import Img_2240 from "@assets/images/IMG_2240.PNG"; import Img_2241 from "@assets/images/IMG_2241.PNG"; import Img_2243 from "@assets/images/IMG_2243.PNG";

My favourite genre of blog post right now is "here are some tools I built just for myself". Examples:

Casey Newton built a searchable database of his past newsletter issues.
Mike Masnick built a task management tool that worked just the way he needed.
Karol Horosin built a bunch of little tools to solve his own problems.
And Simon Willison, perhaps unsurprisingly, has created so many.

I knew I wanted to do something similar, but you can't force inspiration - I had to wait for it to strike.

Where it started

The other day I downloaded all of our bank transactions for 2025, twelve somewhat-depressing CSV files showing just where our money went last year. I pointed Claude at it:

❯ This directory contains all joint account transactions for 2025, organised by month (each filename is the first day of the calendar month). Analyze all transactions, identify spending patterns, categorize expenses, show me where my money actually goes versus where I think it goes, and flag any unusual patterns or opportunities to save. Ask any clarifying questions you need before completing your analysis.

A few false starts[^1] later, Claude came back with this:

⏺ **You're shopping for groceries 6+ times per week.**
The numbers:

- **323 shopping days** out of 365 (you shop almost every day)
- **69% of those days** you visit multiple stores
- 50 out of 52 weeks had **5+ grocery trips**

### The Real Cost

This "grab a few things" pattern has hidden costs:

- **Time** - 6 trips/week × 30 min = 3+ hours/week on grocery runs
- **Impulse purchases** - each visit is an opportunity to grab extras
- **Fuel** - even short trips add up

Consolidating to 2-3 bigger weekly shops could save both time and money.

I knew we shopped a lot, but... wow. I don't know which was more flabbergasting, that there were only 42 days last year where we didn't visit a supermarket, or that there were only two weeks where we didn't go at least five times.

About half an hour later, while this was still running through my head, I got the question every parent loves hearing fifteen times a day.

"What's for dinner?"

And lo, inspiration had arrived.

A bit of backstory

It's not as if we'd never considered meal planning. It was just one of those things that work great for other families, but not for ours. One night's dinner was hard enough to a) come up with and b) get agreement on, let alone the next four or five or six. Having ingredients on hand too often led to "I'm not in the mood for that", leading to spoilage and waste.

It wasn't until this week that I realised: the actual problem was never about food. It came down to two things:

Decision fatigue - constantly having to work out what to have for dinner is one of the lamest parts of adulting, but it's no fun for kids either. They also don't have as wide a view as adults of what the choices might be.
Autonomy - I don't know about your kids, but ours reflexively rebel against being presented with a foregone conclusion. Give them choices, even if only a few narrow ones, and they're fine.

Planning

I knew if this was going to work, it had to reduce decision fatigue as much as possible while still giving everyone an element of choice. After some thought, I told Claude:

❯ I want to create a meal planner that focuses only on two things: what meals we will eat this week, and the ingredients we need for each. No recipes. It'll need to be accessible by the rest of the family so that the kids can see what the remaining options are for the week - so it should live on my server (ideally I'd run it via docker compose or similar, but we can work out deployment later on). Ask clarifying questions and then plan implementation.

Claude had clarifying questions:

⏺ Should the app generate a combined shopping list from all the meal ingredients?
❯ Combined list, but in a format that can be exported to iOS Reminders (our grocery list app)

⏺ How should weeks work - do you want to plan multiple weeks ahead, or just focus on the current week?
❯ Current week only

A few other questions, and then we had a plan:

# Meal Planner Implementation Plan

## Overview

A simple family meal planner web app for tracking weekly dinners and their ingredients, with shopping list export to iOS Reminders via Shortcuts.

## Requirements Summary

- **Meals:** Dinners only, assigned to days (Mon-Sun) with flexibility to swap
- **Scope:** Current week only
- **Access:** Open viewing, PIN-protected editing
- **Shopping list:** Combined ingredients with iOS Shortcuts export
- **Deployment:** Docker Compose on home server

## Tech Stack Recommendation

**Go + SQLite + htmx**

Why this stack:

- Single binary, no runtime dependencies
- Tiny Docker image (~15MB)
- htmx provides interactivity without a JS framework
- SQLite keeps data persistence simple (single file)
- Easy to maintain and modify

I sat with this plan for a while, then made some crucial adjustments:

Dinners could be for a specific day, or just sometime this week - no hard and fast plan required.
Tonight's dinner would be highlighted front and centre, saving the need for that question.
While this was definitely not going to be a recipe app, it did need to be a shopping app - so keeping meals as an option for the future would save us having to enter the ingredients all over again.
Weeks would run Sunday to Saturday, and once a day had passed its meal would simply return to the "future option" meal ideas backlog.

I also had Claude on the web put together a few design options:

This was beginning to sound like a meal planner that would work for us.

Build time

The initial build took maybe 15 minutes - I just pointed Claude at the plan and the mockups, then hit approve all. Next thing you know, we have a fully-functional webapp.

Well, not quite fully functional. I've discovered that the last 10% is the trickiest part with vibe coding.

Then - of course - there was yak shaving time, where I obsessed over tiny little improvements...

And then I wasn't happy with the design, so I pointed Impeccable Style at it...

But we got there!

Introducing Plateful

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2240.src} alt="Meal planner app screenshot" /> <figcaption> The meal list - including one planned but not yet scheduled </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2243.src} alt="Meal planner app screenshot" /> <figcaption> Meal ideas available to schedule, all with the ingredient list populated (even when there aren't any) </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2239.src} alt="Meal planner app screenshot" /> <figcaption>Populating the ingredient list</figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2241.src} alt="Meal planner app screenshot" /> <figcaption> The shopping list can be copied or sent to Reminders (via Shortcuts) </figcaption> </figure> </div>

The main view shows tonight's dinner, any meals we have planned for specific nights, and any we're planning for this week but haven't pinned down a day yet. Under meal ideas we have a list of things we've cooked recently, all with their ingredient list populated - in edit mode, we can add any of them to the week with one tap. The ingredient list is simple, with only three fields, and the shopping list aggregates items, ready to be sent to the clipboard or to our grocery list in Reminders (via Shortcuts).

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It wouldn't work for everyone, but it works perfectly for us - all the features we need, none we don't.

And best of all, no need to give up fish and chip Friday 🎉

<sub> Featured image is from The Castle (1997) and borrowed with respect. </sub>

[^1]: Protip: don't get Claude to load 2,575 rows of CSV data into memory as it will max out your context window - or at least it does on the Pro plan.

Let's go Broncos!

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 21:31:11 GMT

Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100? ↣

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 01:02:21 GMT

Ironically, this thread could get quite expensive.

Cat Cafè

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 02:45:44 GMT

import Img_2151 from "@assets/images/IMG_2151.jpeg"; import Img_2182 from "@assets/images/IMG_2182.jpeg"; import Img_2185 from "@assets/images/IMG_2185.jpeg"; import Img_2196 from "@assets/images/IMG_2196.jpeg"; import Img_2202 from "@assets/images/IMG_2202.jpeg"; import Img_2204 from "@assets/images/IMG_2204.jpeg";

Alex and I went to visit a cat cafè yesterday for some badly needed kitty time (Nyx is still frightened of me 😢).

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2151.src} alt="A grey tabby British Shorthair" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;">Junjun</figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2182.src} alt="A grey and white domestic medium-hair cat" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;">Milky</figcaption> </figure> </div>

Cat cafè pro tip: Always get the first session of the day - their interest in treats (and tolerance for your shit) is at its peak.

Mr Shy had the right idea - he never moved from his cat bed the entire time, just chilled out and received adoration without moving a muscle. Life goals.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2202.src} alt="A tortoiseshell and white domestic shorthair cat" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;">Huahua</figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Img_2204.src} alt="A fluffy orange ragdoll cat" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;">Orange</figcaption> </figure> </div>

Check out Lazy Cat Cafè next time you're in Box Hill.

Sneezes ranked ↣

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:57:00 GMT

Tag yourself. (I'm usually #2 but occasionally #7.)

Scientists find exercise rivals therapy for depression ↣

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 03:37:00 GMT

uuuuuggggghhhhhh. Do not want.

1/11/2026, 5:06:00 PM

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 06:06:00 GMT

I thought Gemini 3 was pretty great, but I had no idea how good Claude Code is.

Gemini

Pro: Free (through work), successfully used it to take a boilerplate Astro install and make it a fairly customised site.
Con: Constantly disregarded standing instructions (and got all Marvin the Paranoid Android about it when called out). Made assumptions that were all too often not based in fact (example: this is an Astro project, therefore it uses Tailwind - even though GEMINI.md says it does not).

Claude

Pro: Just gets it right. I spent a couple of hours on this minor redesign and at no point did I have to correct Claude or repeat an instruction to do (or not do) something. By the end I was just hitting yes on proposed code changes - I see how people feel comfortable enabling yolo mode.
Con: Not free. That's the whole list.

I should have done this sooner.

1/8/2026, 9:24:00 PM

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 10:24:00 GMT

import { YouTube } from "astro-embed";

Just sayin'.

1/6/2026, 11:24:00 AM

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:24:00 GMT

I hate hot weather. 40 degrees? GTFO.

RIP 2025 (2025-2025)

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:59:00 GMT

import Img_1947 from "@assets/images/IMG_1947.JPG"; import Img_1954 from "@assets/images/IMG_1954.JPG";

In the past I've gone month by month through the year, even if not much happened. This year I'm just going to play the hits.

Previous RIPs: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024.

Listening

Minutes: 12,924 (⬆️ 58%)
Top artists: Taylor Swift, Frank Turner, Green Day, State Champs, Fall Out Boy
🆕 Listening age: 30 (lol)

TS12 was a highlight (of course) but The Paradox was my favorite new band.

Watching

Movies

Didn't see too many this year, but we made it to the 20th anniversary edition of Revenge of the Sith, plus Fantastic Four (very good - finally a real Galactus!), Thunderbolts (very good), Captain America (meh), and Superman (really excellent - the DCU is off to a good start).

TV

It was quite a year for TV. The single best thing I watched in 2025 was Andor, an incredible piece of work on so many levels. Not only was it one of the rare shows I have gone back to watch again and again, it actually elevates the films - the last three episodes combine beautifully with Rogue One and A New Hope.

Other things I enjoyed:

The Pitt: Noah Wyle was amazing, the hour-by-hour aspect worked well and enabled storylines to be set up to pay off "hours" later, and the realism had me flinching in places (the floating face injury 🤮).
Black Doves: Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw were fantastic.
The Diplomat: Soapy af, great cast. Very much enjoyed the mini-West Wing reunion in season 3.
Peacemaker: Easily the most consistently funny show of the year, but with a ton of heart.
Mobland: Another great cast: Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren madly chewing scenery, and Tom Hardy doing Tom Hardy things.
Dept Q: Didn't expect to like this as much as I did, but very much looking forward to another season.
Pluribus: Not sure about that ending - or the wait for season 2 - but the best premise of the year.
Stranger Things: The final episode is tomorrow so it's yet to be seen if they stick the landing[^1] - but the final season has been great so far.

Best reality show of the year: The Traitors (US). 20 reality show cast members playing Werewolf in a Scottish castle while Alan Cumming serves escalating amounts of cunt. Probably the best argument that we're living in a simulation, because this show was absolutely custom-made for me.

Most reliably fun show: Strange New Worlds. I have long been a critic of the tendency to mine the pre-TOS era for increasingly diminishing returns, but SNW made me eat my words. Great cast, a visual feast (the sets! the ships! the costumes! Pike's hair!), and just plain fun viewing.

Best show about sport (that's not really about sport): Shoresy. From beyond-humble beginnings as a throwaway character in a whole other show (whose face was never even seen!), Shoresy has built an ensemble cast around strong characters, a kickass soundtrack, and a particularly Canadian worldview. You don't need to love hockey to enjoy it, but it sure doesn't hurt. This is the show I rewatched more than any other, and I picked up something new every time. Go check it out.

Speaking of sport: So far so good for my Broncos and Avalanche 🎉 Not so much the Cardinals or Buffaloes. NFL GamePass has been slowly improving but is still pretty shit, MLB.TV is reliably fantastic (but I'm concerned about the broadcast landscape for next season, given how DAZN have fucked the NFL coverage), and getting every home and away broadcast of every NHL game for free on Disney+ has been a very pleasant surprise.

Reading

Lots of music biographies, not much fiction. Comics-wise, DC's Absolute line is still the best thing being published right now, and the X-Men books continue their slide into irrelevance.

Travel

Zero travel, first time (other than the pandemic) in ages.

Countries visited: 0 (no change)
Flights: 0 (⬇️ 100%)
Distance flown: 0 km (⬇️ 100%)
Time in the air: 0h 0m (⬇️ 100%)
Swarm checkins: 666 🤘 (⬆️ 44%)
Swarm mayorships: 95 (⬆️ 339%)
Status: None (nor do I expect this to change, so I won't keep tracking it)

Health

Steps: 1,107,775 (⬇️ 13%)
Weight: ⬇️ 0.3%
Average sleep time: 7h 53 min (⬆️ 10%)

Work

Days unemployed: 0 (⬇️ 100%)
Days in contract work: 0 (no change)
Days in permanent employment: 365 (⬆️ 44%)

Hopefully this is the last year I need to track this stat.[^2]

This post was made possible by Apple Photos, Swarm, Spotify, Trakt, and my Bluesky/Mastodon history.

[^1]: They did.

[^2]: Knock on wood.

12/24/2025, 9:38:00 PM

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 10:38:00 GMT

Traditions are important.

12/24/2025, 10:14:00 AM

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 23:14:00 GMT

This is my favourite Christmas song - the original is a bit overdone (blasphemy, I know) but Christy Moore's version is beautiful.

12/16/2025, 8:14:00 PM

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 09:14:00 GMT

Did anyone at Apple actually test Edge Light with multiple monitors? If you're using an external camera, the edge light just floats around to whichever screen you happen to be using - and not immediately, on some vague, indeterminate schedule. You can change the color temperature and the brightness, but not attach it to a specific screen. It's not a bad feature - just seems a bit half-baked... which seems to be a theme, lately.

12/12/2025, 10:26:00 AM

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:26:00 GMT

I cannot possibly tell you just how much you're welcome to it. Enjoy.

12/12/2025, 7:20:00 AM

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 20:20:00 GMT

The wonders of free public education, in which year 7 costs parents a measly $2k before grade 6 has even finished.

Subtle signs your company is preparing for layoffs ↣

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 02:07:00 GMT

Can confirm this is 100% accurate. (Archive link here in case it disappears.)

12/7/2025, 7:52:00 PM

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 08:52:00 GMT

This week’s SNL: cold open was great, Weekend Update excellent as always… and the musical guest gave me time to go get a snack, so that was nice.

40 questions to ask yourself

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:29:59 GMT

I'm giving Steph Ango's 40 questions to ask yourself this year a go - a bit of reflection to process everything that's gone on.

1. What did you do this year that you’d never done before? Volunteer work for a political party. (Mostly because my friend was the Greens candidate for Kooyong, but still.)

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions? I don't believe in them.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes.

5. What cities/states/countries did you visit? Nowhere - only the second year in memory where I did not travel at all (and 2020 hardly counts).

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year? A bike.

7. What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why? October 26th, not for good reasons.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting promoted 🎉

9. What was your biggest failure? My continuing inability to charm the cat. Love me, dammit.

10. What other hardships did you face? Nothing out of the ordinary.

11. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing serious.

12. What was the best thing you bought? A SnapGrip.

13. Whose behavior merited celebration? The 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche.

14. Whose behavior made you appalled? gestures broadly in all directions

15. Where did most of your money go? Rent 🤮

16. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Star Trek 🤝 LEGO

17. What song will always remind you of this year? Sweet Caroline.

18. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Richer or poorer? Healthier or unhealthier? Happier, no better or worse, and healthier.

19. What do you wish you’d done more of? I would say exercise, but that's a lie as I hate exercise. My stupid brain seems to enjoy it though 😠

20. What do you wish you’d done less of? Wallowing.

21. How are you spending the holidays? With family.

22. Did you fall in love this year? N/A.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Hate is counterproductive.

24. What was your favorite show? Slow Horses. Great writing, short seasons, cracking pace, and Jackson Lamb.

25. What was the best book you read? Deliver Me From Nowhere by Warren Zanes.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery of the year? The Paradox.

27. What was your favorite film? Fantastic Four: First Steps.

28. What was your favorite meal? We had two team lunches at Juni this year and they were both unbelievable.

29. What did you want and get? Ask me again after Christmas.

30. What did you want and not get? My cat's love 💔

31. What did you do on your birthday? Visited my island on Animal Crossing.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Winning the lottery.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion this year? Strictly utilitarian.

34. What kept you sane? The underlying assumption of this question is dubious.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most? Tony Gilroy, creator of Andor.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? I'm still on a mental health break from politics - fitting my own oxygen mask.

37. Who did you miss? My friends.

38. Who was the best new person you met? My new teammates - Jess, Sonja, and Mon.

39. What valuable life lesson did you learn this year? Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

40. What is a quote that sums up your year? “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work.”

Recent reads

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 05:29:59 GMT

I got really into rock biographies recently - here's the ones I've read over the last couple of months. Reach out if you've got any recommendations!

Nothin' But A Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion (Tom Beaujour & Richard Bienstock)

I found out this one existed while reading about the next book on the list, so I figured I'd give it a read while I was waiting for the next book to be released. I'm pretty much a sucker for the oral history format (Live from New York is the preeminent example of the genre, IMO) so I enjoyed this. Predictably there is a lot of debauchery recounted here (sex! drugs! more drugs! even more drugs!) but also a fair bit of humility and regret for lost time and absent friends.

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival (Tom Beaujour & Richard Bienstock)

This was the one I was really waiting for. For a hot minute Lollapalooza was just a fact of the summer - you'd check out the lineup and figure out how necessary it was to get tickets[^1], who'd want to go, and what substances would need to be obtained. It was interesting the way me and my friends thought about the lineups was mirrored at the macro level by ticket sales (the lurch towards less-well-known bands for Lollapalooza 3 meant we gave that year a miss) and how we were not the only stop on Lollapalooza 4 where everyone left during the Smashing Pumpkins set to beat traffic.[^2]

This was a really nostalgic read for me, it brought back lots of memories of those endless summers.

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

Fahrenheit-182 (Mark Hoppus)

Very readable - as funny as you would expect from Blink-182's lyricist, but Mark also displays a great deal of insight and self-awareness. Lots of this resonated with me pretty strongly. Of course, there's also plenty of toilet humour and debauchery.

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

The Name of This Band is R.E.M. (Peter Ames Carlin)

I came to R.E.M. pretty late - during the Green era - so there was lots here that was new to me. The band depicted here is more ambitious and less ascetic than the impression I formed of them at that time, making this book the most surprising and insightful of the bunch for me. It's also more prose than reporting in places, and not your typical rock bio. (Turns out the author has also written biographies of McCartney, Simon and Springsteen, which I may have to check out...)

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

Long Ago & Far Away: James Taylor, His Life and Music (Timothy White)

I was pretty excited for this one - I've been a casual James Taylor fan for a long time, but I don't know too much about him aside from the broad strokes. Unfortunately, as much as I hate a DNF, this book was not the remedy for my James Taylor ignorance - it starts out in 1622 with his ancestors, and by page 200 had still only reached 1961. There's such a thing as too much detail.

<sup>Find it on Booko, if you must</sup>

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Laura Jane Grace)

One of the most compelling frontpeople in punk rock, I was very much looking forward to this and it did not disappoint. Short but very readable, and largely taken from contemporaneous diaries - the emotion is raw and in your face. The background to Against Me!'s history and lineup changes is illuminating, but the real story here is LJG's long battle with gender dysphoria and eventual acceptance of her true identity. Interestingly there were also clues hidden all over the place in Against Me!'s discography - The Ocean wasn't the first.

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

Birth School Metallica Death / Into the Black: The Inside Story of Metallica 1991-2014 (Paul Brannigan & Ian Winwood)

A massive two-volume set that covers the band from its inception in 1981 to the Black Album, and from there to Death Magnetic in 2014. The authors interviewed Metallica plenty of times over the years, but much more so during the era covered by the second book, which shows - the first book is a bit more cobbled together from other sources. There is a lot less ass-kissing than you see in this kind of biography though, and they are particularly unsparing when it comes to the raw deal Jason Newsted got from day one until his exit from the band in 2001. You won't learn much that's new here, but if you are into the band it's a reminder of just how unlikely their ascent to the title of the biggest metal band in the world really was.

<sup>Find them on Booko: 1, 2</sup>

Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music (Rob Sheffield)

Don't expect journalistic objectivity in this book - it's a love letter from an unapologetic Swiftie. But then again, so am I - so I loved it. This isn't aimed at people on the fence, it's more of a celebration of all things Taylor. Includes album-by-album chapters, dissection of the track 5 phenomenon, the Eras Tour and Taylor's Versions (Rep TV when 😭). Skip this one if you're not a fan, but very worthwhile if you are.

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons (Ben Folds)

Just finished this one, and while it glosses over some aspects of Ben's life (his fourth wife barely gets a mention, and even then not by name) it's a fun history of his early musical career, the Ben Folds Five years and his solo career, and his later multimedia TV/rock/orchestra/Shatner collab years. (Though it doesn't include the story behind One Down, sadly.)

<sup>Find it on Booko</sup>

[^1]: I just looked up what we paid for tickets - the 1992 tour was $23.50 including fees, by 1994 it went up to a whopping $30.50. A ridiculous bargain considering the lineups for those years.

[^2]: Don't get me wrong, Siamese Dream is one of the best albums of all time; hell, I even listen to their album of B-sides all the time. But whether it was Billy Corgan being Billy Corgan, the band not having one of their best nights, or just the fact that we'd been in the hot sun and crowds for nine hours by that point - we made it through three whole songs before we pulled the pin. Apparently not only the crowds but also other bands did the same thing, all tour long.

RIP 2024 (2024-2024)

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:59:59 GMT

I took a couple of years off doing this, one because life got busy and one because it was an awful, awful year that I'd just as soon forget.[^1]

This year was a bit of a mixed bag but it's ended in a pretty good place - let's do this.

Previous RIPs: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021.

Recap

January

Started out the year living temporarily in Fitzroy North, thanks to the kind and wonderful Andrea. Found a new house pretty quickly, living in the eastern suburbs again (the third time in the same square kilometre, even). Got the kids into schools, found a new job (working with Nick and Kaitlin again 🎉), started getting settled back into Australia.

February

Weird summer - hot periods followed by severe thunderstorms. Went to my first RORO in years. Found a good trivia night nearby and immediately started our domination 💪

March

<sup>First time we've driven anything other than a Mazda in over 20 years</sup>

Wrecked my ankle yet again - I think this time really did the trick, so my running days are over. Bought a Jeep, first time we've driven something other than a Mazda in 21 years.

April

<sup>It's a long story</sup>

Co-MC'd RubyConf AU with the incomparable Caitlin Donaldson - caught up with old friends, met tons of new people, saw some amazing talks. Became a Melbourne Vixens member and saw a few games with Jo - already renewed for next season.

May

The aurora came to visit! It was an incredibly freezing night but worth every second.

June

Visited St Andrews market, which hasn't changed a bit. Watched The Bear season 3. Not much else really.

July

<sup>You know you're in Australia when...</sup>

Alex's 11th birthday party (a little early but whatevs). Saw Twisters and obsessed over the soundtrack for months afterwards.

August

Visited the Sydney office again for our end of financial year party. Enjoyed Olympics memes more than the actual Olympics themselves. Saw Deadpool & Wolverine, which of course was amazing. Celebrated Jo's 13th (!) birthday.

September

<sup>Father's Day breakfast in bed ❤️</sup>

Eventful month!

The ridiculous dominance of Travis Hunter commenced.

We welcomed Nyx to our family, she is a very squeaky girl and has mostly settled in. (Still won't come near me, but everyone else is OK 😢)

I turned 50 and was spoiled rotten (especially love my Discovery Lego set)...
... then was made redundant less than a week later. There was lots of drama around this, it was handled very badly and it was the last thing I needed after the events of last year. So yeah, that sucked.

October

Spent the month job hunting and marveling at how quickly one man can destroy years of goodwill (from those who have not met him personally, at any rate). Thankfully, the job hunting aspect was much less of a train wreck and I started a new role looking after recruiting for Ferocia ❤️

November

Cut out all my sources for US political news and I'm much happier for it. The election was like watching a wasted friend who's pissed their pants and is screaming obscenities at anyone who tries to help - I don't need to like your choices, but I don't need to stick around and watch the consequences either.

December

Saw Frank Turner at the Espy - brilliant show at an amazing venue. Had our work Xmas party, then took two weeks off work for free! Spent Christmas with family, watched football, got more Lego, relaxed, and generally decompressed after a year that was slightly less mad than the previous one, but still a lot.

Stats

Travel

Countries visited: 0 (-)
Flights: 6 (⬆️ 100%)
Distance flown: 4,242 km (⬆️ 100%)
Time in the air: 8h 24m (⬆️ 100%)
Swarm checkins: 464 (⬇️ 45%)
Swarm mayorships: 28 (⬇️ 60%)
Status: None

Music

Minutes: 8,172 (⬆️ 37%)
Top artists: Taylor Swift, Frank Turner 🆕, State Champs 🆕, Black Keys, Green Day

Books

I was not at all diligent about recording what I read in my StoryGraph account, but some books I enjoyed were the Silvers series, the Uglies series, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman (which also prompted a Magicians re-read), Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen, and Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Health

Steps: 1,274,215 (⬇️ 2%)
Weight: ⬇️ 3%
Average sleep time: 7h 10 min (⬆️ 21%)

Work

Days unemployed: 44 (⬇️ 79%)
Days in contract work: 0 (-)
Days in permanent employment: 321 (⬆️ 200%)

This post was made possible by Google Maps Timeline, Apple Photos, Swarm, and my Instagram/Threads/Bluesky/Mastodon history compensating for my woeful memory.

[^1]: I actually have forgotten big chunks of the tail end of last year - the last few months are kind of a blur, and there are whole conversations I'm told I had that I have no memory of. No idea if I was just scattered or if I'm actively repressing that time. Either way, mission partially accomplished, I guess?

lol

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 22:38:00 GMT

Via Death Generator. I can see this being useful for many, many shitposting needs.

Pretty footnotes using Littlefoot

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:23:00 GMT

I'm a fan of footnotes, generally. They make a good way to explain yourself without resorting to a ton of hyphens or parentheses (both of which I am guilty of overusing).^1 The modern implementation of providing a superscript number to tap on which takes you to the footnote, then a unicode ↩ [^2] to bring you back where you were, is pretty great. But there are problems, namely:

a) the tap target is pretty tiny, and

b) there's still some cognitive overhead in picking back up when you're not resuming from where you were - the position on the page has shifted.

I like how kottke.org does them, as well as the way Unread (my current RSS reader) has implemented them: a simple popover that can be read and dismissed, without anything in the backdrop changing. I found two ways to implement these: the original was Bigfoot, which requires jQuery and hasn't been updated in a while, or the newer Littlefoot. The latter has great documentation but didn't include everything I needed to get it working on Astro, so I figured I'd make a note of it here for future me (and anyone else who finds themselves in the same position).

(Disclaimer: as an engineer I could be charitably described as "an enthusiast", so this may well be a pretty inefficient way of doing things. I'm also using Astro Paper, so in your use case some of this might be unnecessary.)

Install via NPM:
```
npm install --save littlefoot
```
In your main layout file (mine is Layout.astro, YMMV), import the CSS at the top of the page:
```
import "@styles/littlefoot.css";
```
Lower on the page - it has to be in a <script> tag outside the frontmatter so Astro knows to load it client-side [^3] - import the module and add an event listener to call it on page load: [^4]
```
<script>
  import { littlefoot } from "littlefoot";

  document.addEventListener('astro:page-load', () => {
    littlefoot();
  });
</script>
```
Done!

Hopefully this helps - drop me a line if you want to tell me how I messed it up 😆

[^2]: Ms ↩ if you're nasty.

[^3]: Mine lives inside the <body> tag.

[^4]: Much later edit: astro:page-load only works if you use Astro's View Transitions.

Time Capsule

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 09:42:51 GMT

@tcn33@mastodon.social:113435391369700467

Changes

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 04:55:00 GMT

Well, that was an eventful couple of years.[^1]

We're back in Australia, as of last December. To say that things did not go according to plan would be a serious understatement, and it was a very stressful time for all of us.

But we're settled back into Melbourne, the kids are enjoying their new schools (one is in high school 😱), I have an amazing new job, and things seem to be going okay. We weren't able to bring back our cats, which was one of the worst parts of all that happened, but after taking some time to mourn we decided to adopt a new family member. Say hi to Nyx 🐈‍⬛ 🖤

In the course of migrating this blog (yes, again) I've been inspired to start writing more often. I also recently read Matt Webb's rules for blogging, which don't seem too hard... right?

So here is my shiny new Astro-powered blog, life is going okay (knock on wood), let's do this.

[^1]: To say the very least.

It's on!

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 23:45:04 GMT

After my trip to Boulder and Denver in 2019, I started thinking it was time to head back to the US for a while. I'm very excited to let y'all know that my plotting and scheming has borne fruit, and we will be moving to Boulder in September. I'll still be with Linktree, and will be leading our US hiring for tech roles.

This is a huge move for us as a family and we're all really looking forward to it. We've got a school picked out for the kids, so we know the area we want to live in - we just need to find a place. We'll be staying in a temporary place for a month or so while we look around.

AU friends, we'd love to get together one more time before leaving. US friends, let's get together when we arrive!

RIP 2021 (2021-2021)

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 07:24:04 GMT

Not much happened this year, so this will be brief.

Recap

January

Got myself an e-bike, loved it. (Unfortunately due to lack of work I ended up having to sell it a month later.) Obsessed about Queen's Gambit, made some Bernie memes - much like 99% of the English-speaking world.

February

Oh good, more lockdown! (Luckily only five days this time.) WandaVision was awesome.

March

Started working for ANZ, in what I was initially told was a permanent role and then at offer time became a 12-month fixed-term contract. Biggest company by far I have ever worked for, with some lovely people, but it made me realise how much I love the pace and the ability to have impact that you get in a startup environment. Accompanied my eldest on a school camp, which was fun, but two days with 50 fourth graders is a lot.

April

This aged so well I am now legally prohibited from making predictions.

May

Went to a Vixens game, enjoyed Eurovision. Melbourne got a wee bit complacent about our "consecutive days with no COVID cases" streak, which ended on May 10th after 72 "donut days". Lockdown number 4 started late in the month and ran into June - back to home schooling 😭

June

Loki! It rained a lot. Not much else happened.

July

Fifth lockdown, this one for two weeks. Got vaxed.

August

Started a new job with Linktree - much more my speed. Moved house yet again. Sixth lockdown started.

September

I turned 47 but felt 94. Sixth lockdown continued all month.

October

Sixth lockdown finally ended on the 22nd, marking 260+ days in lockdown - the most of any city in the world. We were still under a ton of restrictions, but those were later lifted once we crossed the 90% fully-vaccinated mark (despite the best efforts of dickhead protestors spreading the goddamn virus) and anyway the kids were back in school, so 🥂

November

Observed turkey day. First rumblings of Omicron.

December

Survived the year, barely. Last year I said:

2021, when we say that there is no possible way that you could be worse than 2020, that is not a challenge. Just... please give us a break. We're all exhausted.

That goes triple for 2022. You win, okay? We'll just sit quietly and behave.

Stats

Travel

Countries visited: 0 (-)
Flights: 0 (-)
Distance flown: 0 km (-)
Time in the air: 0 hours (-)
Swarm checkins: 305 (⬇️ 27%)
Swarm mayorships: 70 (⬆️ 46%)
Status: Premier Platinum with United through January, then down to shameful Silver 😭

Music

Minutes: 5,982 (⬆️ 40%)
Top artists: Taylor Swift, Gimme Gimmes 🆕, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Blackpink 🆕

Books

I read 18 books last year according to the StoryGraph, but I don't think I was very vigilant about recording what I read. Also, more than half of that came in the last eight weeks of the year as I tore my way through books 2 to 13 of the Wheel of Time.

Health

Steps: 1,297,210 (⬆️ 58%)
Weight: ⬆️ 5% 😡
Average sleep time: 6h 23 min

Work

Days unemployed: 15 (⬇️ 93%)
Days in contract work: 199 (⬆️ 231%)
Days in permanent employment: 151 (⬆️ 302%)

This post was made possible by Google Timeline, Google Photos, Swarm and my Twitter history compensating for my woeful memory.

🇺🇸

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 23:45:04 GMT

I lived in Boulder and Denver for quite a while. The more time that goes by, the more I miss it.

Work setup for late 2021

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 04:33:02 GMT

I did this earlier this year, but things have changed quite a bit since then.

<sup><a href="/images/IMG_1482_markup.jpg" target="_blank">Click here to EMBIGGEN</a></sup>

1. 13" M1 MacBook Pro Blows away my old 16" hexa-core i7 MBP, but still chugs a little because macOS continues to develop strange bugs. Sits in a TwelveSouth BookArc.

2. LG UltraFine 5K display Great camera, powers the MBP with a single cable, 5K resolution - what's not to love? I've looked at other monitors, but not much beats this one without spending a lot of money.

3. HomePod mini One of three in the house - I run audio through here sometimes, or put calls on speaker. I still wish Intercom was a bit more intuitive.

4. Google Home Hub Mostly for the photo frame functionality, though occasionally for broadcasting to specific rooms.

5. AirPods Max Stupidly expensive, worth every penny. Amazing for Zoom, voice calls, music, drowning out noisy children.

6. Yeti Rambler 30oz Keeps my sparkling water cool all day long.

7. Orbitkey Desk Mat Backed this on Kickstarter and love it. The cable retention in particular is 😙👌

8. Logitech MX Keys for Mac Slightly more travel than the Magic Keyboard, which isn't ideal (I'm one of those freaks who like super flat keyboards) but it's got a surprising amount of heft which means it doesn't move around the desk. The backlighting and multi-device support are the icing on the cake.

9. Logitech MX Master 3 Finally upgraded from the first version, highly recommended.

10. Coffee This is cup number five for today.

11. IKEA Bekant standing desk Usually in the lower position, though I stand up for meetings and interviews.

12. Steelcase Gesture chair Best chair ever. Amazingly comfortable, adjustable in every dimension you could want, reinforces good posture, but still lets you recline when you really want to. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

13. Ginger Our youngest, nearly 2 years old we think. We inherited her when she got stuck on the roof of a construction site next door, and we couldn't track down her owners.

14. Scarlett The middle child, 4 years old. Someone dumped her and her brothers in a front yard in Northcote - I saw her photo on r/melbourne and knew she'd be joining our family.

15. Windows East-facing with lots of sun, so I don't need a ring light anymore - but constant dust and dirt from the nearby construction. You win some, you lose some.

SSH client_loop fix

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 02:04:04 GMT

I had a weird issue today after a recent macOS upgrade. Everytime I tried to SSH to my home server (on the same network), it hung for a minute or two and then spat out this error:

$ ssh [remote_host] -l [user]
[user]@[remote_host]'s password:
client_loop: send disconnect: Broken pipe
$

The fix, courtesy of WireTurf, turns out to be changing your ssh command to:

$ ssh -o IPQoS=throughput [remote_host] -l [user]
$

Or you can edit ~/.ssh/config to add:

Host *
IPQoS=throughput

Work setup for 2021

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 06:37:28 GMT

I've been working from home full-time for three years as of today. While it's not perfect, my setup has come a long way since then – originally I had a tiny 60cm x 100cm (24" x 40") desk wedged between my bed and a window. Nowadays I have a separate office, which helps a lot with establishing boundaries between work and home.

<sup>Please excuse the dust 😳</sup>

1. Ring light For meetings – the elevation keeps the reflection from showing up in my glasses. The filter isn't quite as warm as I'd like, but for right now it's fine – much less harsh than turning on the overhead lights. It's connected to a Meross smart plug, so I can keep it dialed in at the right brightness level and just ask Siri to turn it off and on.

2. Ikea lamp with LIFX White bulb In summer this is the main light source in the room - it's too hot outside to have the blinds open. In winter I open them up wide and let some natural light in. I'm planning to replace it with a White to Warm bulb to provide some variation in the colour temperature and give a sense of time of day.

3. HomePod mini One of three in the house - I run audio through here sometimes, or put calls on speaker. I like HomePod a lot, but I wish Intercom was a bit more intuitive.

4. Choetech wireless charger Works, but much more slowly than MagSafe. Mostly just here so I can see notifications while charging.

5. LG UltraFine 5K display Great camera, powers the MBP with a single cable, 5K resolution - what's not to love? (Though I have been considering a 34" curved monitor.)

6. Google Home Hub Mostly for the photo frame functionality, though occasionally for broadcasting to specific rooms.

7. Orbitkey Desk Mat Backed this on Kickstarter and love it. The cable retention in particular is 😙👌

9. Logitech MX Master The first version of the redesigned MX series. Definitely want to upgrade to the MX Master 3 though.

10. 16" MacBook Pro (2019) 2.6GHz hexa-core i7, 32GB RAM, dual graphics cards, yadda yadda. This thing feels like an absolute dinosaur compared to the 13" M1 – can't wait to upgrade.

11. Jabra Evolve2 40 Noise cancelling, automatic muting/unmuting when the boom is raised/lowered, "do not disturb" indicators for when I'm on a call. The Jabra software blows, but you can't have everything I guess.

13. Ikea desk Made up of a Linnmon 200cm x 60cm (80" x 24") top and two Alex drawer units. Not too deep, but tons of desktop space and storage.

14. Nexstand Roost but cheaper - the Nexstand is a full $100 AUD less.

15. Map All the places I've been for work (white pins) and for fun (black pins).

Blog 4.0

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:41:04 GMT

I love you, Dr Zaius!

As happens from time to time, I got bored and blew everything up again. After checking out Jekyll and Gatsby, I ultimately settled on Hugo - build times are super fast, and Netlify's continuous deployment Just Works™.

Links should have remained the same, but if you come across anything that doesn't work then please let me know 🙂

Deja vu all over again

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 07:04:04 GMT

Here we are again, under lockdown. Mercifully, this one is only five days (or at least that's the plan) but we're back in stage 4: restricted movement to within 5km of home, one trip outside the house per day, and only for four approved purposes.

I can't help but wonder if this is what life is going to be like from now on: new strains of COVID that evolve seasonally like the flu and which are not covered by existing vaccines, periodic lockdowns as a recurring, accepted part of life. I wonder how decentralised our cities might become, as people start to work remotely more and more and rely on delivery by force of circumstance; and how much we might come to rely on "essential workers" to deal with the outside world on our behalf.

The federal government needs to step up efforts to make vaccines available as soon as possible, and people need to ignore anti-vaxxer bullshit and get vaccinated. We can't keep doing this.

RIP 2020 (2020-2020)

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 07:24:04 GMT

import Babby from "@assets/images/babby_yoda.jpeg"; import DeadYoda from "@assets/images/dead_yoda.jpeg"; import Humans from "@assets/images/humans.jpeg"; import Library from "@assets/images/library.jpeg"; import Puzzle from "@assets/images/puzzle.jpeg"; import Sourdough from "@assets/images/sourdough.jpeg"; import Derp from "@assets/images/derp.jpeg"; import Baseball from "@assets/images/baseball.jpeg"; import Scones2 from "@assets/images/scones2.jpeg"; import More_derp from "@assets/images/more_derp.jpeg";

Die in a grease fire, you utter bastard of a year.

Recap

January

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Babby.src} alt="A Baby Yoda meme" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> it me every year tbh </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={DeadYoda.src} alt="A Yoda parenting meme" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> it me every day tbh </figcaption> </figure> </div>

I start the year just as I finished the last one: exhausted and burned out. I leave Automattic and decide to take three weeks off before looking for something new. This will later turn out to be a spectacularly bad piece of timing.

<sup>Easily the most moving tribute I have ever received 😢</sup>

<sup> Fires were hundreds of kilometres away at this point, and people were being told not to go outdoors unless it was essential 😱 </sup>

February

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Humans.src} alt="Two women hosting a conference" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Two of my favourite humans </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Library.src} alt="The interior of the State Library of Victoria" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Afterparty in a library? That's how we roll </figcaption> </figure> </div>

I attend RubyConf AU and spend time hanging out with many friends and excellent humans, and many hugs are exchanged. Little do any of us know that these hugs will have to sustain us for the foreseeable future.

<sup>Spoiler: ours now</sup>

<sup>Negotiating coexistence</sup>

Later in the month, I get taken to the hospital in an ambulance with some chest pain. (Turns out to be nothing.) Unrelatedly, we find and adopt a lost cat.

March

<sup>Remember dickheads panic buying? Good times.</sup>

Horror stories about COVID-19 start to emerge from Italy. Friends start losing their jobs. A few weeks later, Australia starts social distancing. TV shows from the Before Times start looking weird almost immediately. What seems like several decades later, March finally ends.

At this point, I am still optimistic that I’ll manage to find a new job within the next couple of months. Oh, my sweet summer child.

April

<sup>Never met a cat who sleeps as much as this one</sup>

<sup>We did lots of walking along the river</sup>

Remote schooling starts. This begins three weeks of utter frustration and rapidly degrading mental health on all our parts, until we abandon the attempt completely.

The kids and I discover Stardew Valley and lose most of the month to it.

<sup>This was the biggest news of the whole month in our house, no joke</sup>

May

<sup>Post-biopsy kitten cuddles</sup>

<sup>Post-excision sulking</sup>

Over the preceding few months, a small bump has appeared next to my nose, and my wife finally convinces me that I need to get it checked out. I’m told it’s cancer of some kind and it has to be biopsied immediately to determine a course of action. Somewhat luckily, it turns out to be a basal cell carcinoma, which at least is better than some of the other possibilities. I get it cut out about a week later, leaving me with a pretty decent scar. Histology suggests the doctor got all of it out, but I’ll have to keep an eye on it for the rest of my life.

Kids return to school! Thank fuck. Then our small concerns are put into perspective when the police murder a man in Minneapolis.

<sup>From my eldest's teacher 💕</sup>

June

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Puzzle.src} alt="A jigsaw puzzle" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Puzzles! </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Sourdough.src} alt="Bread" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Sourdough! </figcaption> </figure> </div>

My wife has some minor (but painful) surgery. Three weeks after going back to school, kids go on school holidays. Due to a resurgence in COVID-19 cases locally, holidays are extended a week, and then…

July

Melbourne goes back into lockdown. This time, one person can leave the house once, only within a 5km radius, and only for one of four approved purposes. We're initially told it will be six weeks. (Spoiler: it is much, much longer.)

On the first day of lockdown, my wife starts having stomach pains. By two days later, they are bad enough that I have to drop her off at the emergency room (I’m not allowed in). After four days of bad hospital food, not much information, and a bunch of pain meds, her gallbladder is removed via keyhole surgery. Weeks later, she’s still unable to bend over, reach up, or lift heavy things - but overall, she’s okay.

School goes back to remote learning. This time around, we have learned our lesson and we basically give our kids very extended school holidays. Dan Andrews dunks on the sentient potato who thinks he's Heinrich Himmler, and I am 100% here for it.

August

Lockdown continues. Streaming media, iOS games, and random serendipitous discoveries are the only distractions from the unrelenting grimness. Example: Longcat's human confirms Longcat (Nobiko) still lives, despite being one of the earliest memes I can remember.

I discover non-alcoholic beer has come a long, long way from the Clausthaler days. This proves to be one of the few positive developments of 2020.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Derp.src} alt="A cat tower with a single visible paw" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Derpy cat is derpy </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Baseball.src} alt="A cat watching baseball on TV" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Baseball kitteh </figcaption> </figure> </div>

September

I turn 46 but feel 92. We discover my wife's surgeon has fucked something up, so she has to go back under the knife to fix it. Two months of progress towards being able to move around without pain is all wiped out and reset to zero. RIP RGB 😭

<sup>Birthday gift to self</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Scones2.src} alt="Scones with cream on top of jam" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Cream goes on top unless you are a sociopath </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={More_derp.src} alt="Cat peering from inside a bookcase" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> More derp </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>tfw you reach the "buying a label maker" stage of lockdown</sup>

October

Restrictions start to loosen - the radius is lifted to 25km, and some services are allowed to reopen. On day one, there are lines out the door at every barbershop in town. (No exaggeration.)

I start a two-month contract with A Cloud Guru (via Crew Talent Advisory) recruiting for some engineering, content, product, and design roles. Thanks Simon ❤️

November

RIP Sean Connery 😭 America gets it right, eventually and mostly. The Four Seasons thing once again proves that you should never attribute to malice (and greed, and outright evil) that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

December

<sup>me x IKEA collab</sup>

Potentially headed back into lockdown. To which I can only say this.

2021, when we say that there is no possible way that you could be worse than 2020, that is not a challenge. Just... please give us a break. We're all exhausted.

Stats

Travel

Countries visited: 0 (⬇️ 100%)
Flights: 0 (⬇️ 100%)
Distance flown: 0 km (⬇️ 100%)
Time in the air: 0 hours (⬇️ 100%)
Swarm checkins: 418 (⬇️ 70%)
Swarm mayorships: 48 (⬇️ 20%)
Status: Retained Premier Platinum with United through Jan 2022 🎉

Music

Minutes: 4,260 (⬇️ 64%)
Top artists: Beastie Boys, Taylor Swift, Hamilton Cast 🆕, Pink Floyd 🆕, Fall Out Boy.

Books

You have read 55 of 100 books in 2020.

<footer>goodreads.com</footer>

I wasn't particularly strict about logging to Goodreads, and it's shutting down anyway. I've defected to The StoryGraph, because it's excellent (and was created by Nadia Odunayo, a kick-ass engineer and speaker).

The best thing I read all year was either The City We Became, or Far Sector - both by N.K Jemisin.

2021’s goal is again 100 books.

Health

Steps: 823,500 (⬇️ 40% because lockdown)
Weight: no change 😡
Sleep: stats very inconsistently tracked, but new Apple Watch will fix that

Work

Days unemployed: 230 🆕
Days in contract work: 86 🆕
Days in permanent employment: 50 🆕

This post was made possible by Google Timeline, Google Photos, Swarm and (what remains of) my Twitter history compensating for my woeful memory.

Thought experiment

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:09:04 GMT

Recently I was thinking about my career goals, and one of them is that somewhere in the next few years I’d like to build a recruitment function from scratch within a small to medium business. I had a think about a few things I’d put in place if I were to do that today.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

You have to have one of these - recruiting via spreadsheet means things get done inconsistently, badly, or not at all. Unfortunately, most of the usual suspects are too expensive or just plain overkill in this scenario:

Greenhouse is an industry standard, but it’s expensive, the reporting isn’t that great, and the data model is weird.
Workable is pretty but a tad inflexible.
Lever doesn’t publish pricing, so also probably expensive.

There’s a couple I’d like to check out (but if you have more I should look at, get in touch!):

TalentLyft – the pricing is right, and it looks surprisingly feature-packed. A few of the companies in their case study don’t use it anymore though, which is a worry.
Pinpoint – looks great, doesn’t list pricing so I assume that means expensive.

Hiring Process

Get buy-in from the whole company that interviewing is everyone’s job, and run everyone through unconscious bias training.

Tell people what to expect from your hiring process – no pointless secrecy.

Run your job postings through Textio to check for exclusionary language.

Develop rubrics for every interview stage of every job - eliminate subjectivity as much as possible.

Commit to weekly updates for each candidate, at minimum. No news? That’s okay, tell them that!

Respect your candidate’s time: keep take-home tests to a minimum, and make your assessments relevant to the role. Use pairing or code review in place of one-size-fits-all code tests. If you ask for more than 4 hours work, pay the candidate or make a donation to Code Like A Girl on their behalf.

Knowledge Management

If I were starting a knowledge management system from scratch, I’d use Notion. Same goes for any existing “documentation” that’s really just a bunch of Google Docs files - move it into Notion.

I’d publish as much of the employee handbook publicly as possible. Candidates really respond to that kind of transparency and openness (see GitLab or Sourcegraph for examples).

Onboarding

This process should start the second a candidate accepts an offer – by the tail end of the hiring process you’re speaking to the candidate every day, sometimes multiple times, then they sign their offer and… four weeks of silence. Huge letdown.

Have a plan for communicating regularly with the candidate during their notice period: send them some swag, invite them as a guest into your Slack, organise a lunch with their new team - anything!

Once they've started, kick off an onboarding plan that runs between four weeks and six months, depending on how ambitious you want to be. Minimum inclusions: a buddy to show them the ropes, regular check-ins with your People person or recruiter (to ensure the job they have is the one you sold them on). Donut Onboarding is great for automating this entire process.

People

In 2020, defaulting to remote-first and async communication is The Way. One goes hand in hand with the other: if you want to take advantage of all the benefits that remote-first brings – being able to hire the best people from anywhere (not just those within a certain radius of your office), giving your people autonomy over their time, not needing expensive real estate – then you also need to ensure your communication style is set up to be inclusive, efficient, and effective. That means communicating asynchronously (in fact, over-communicating is a good habit to get into), proactively sharing information, not throwing things over the fence, and not expecting an immediate response to a question. (In fact, if not already totally committed to Slack, Doist’s Twist seems like a much healthier, async-friendly alternative.)

You should also consider defining levels, and associating those levels to specific competencies. People should know precisely where they stack up, and what’s expected of them in order to get to the next level. (Please, no cutesy job titles or super flat structures – they disadvantage people who need to be able to demonstrate career progression on a resume.)

Hire junior people! We were all junior once, and someone took a chance on us - we owe it to the community to pay that forward. (Not to mention that coaching and mentoring are essential skillsets for senior people to develop.) Put together a structured, consistent plan so that every junior you hire is set up for success from day one.

Pay your people for referrals: good people know good people. (This can also be a stealth indicator of how engaged your people are - when referrals slow to a trickle, something might be going wrong.)

Website

At minimum, you need:

A careers page! You can’t just rely on networks or LinkedIn ads forever.
Some info on why people should come work with you. Not ping-pong tables or Friday beers, but the kinds of things I mentioned earlier: autonomy, thoughtful communication, career progression.
Photos of the team – candidates will want to see if there’s anyone working there who isn’t a white man aged 18-49.

Other things I’d put in place:

A blog. Have your people write about their day jobs. Engineers can write about interesting challenges, designers can post about their process, etc.
Post talks your people have done on the blog. (If there aren’t any, fix that.)
A public commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Conclusion

You’ll notice most of these are centered around candidate experience, or attracting and retaining great people, and that’s no accident – those things are, to me, what recruiting is. I want people to enthusiastically join us, and to never regret that decision. This is how I’d go about that right now, if left to my own devices, but recruiting is also a collaboration and one size never fits all – so if this is in the ballpark of what you’re thinking, and you need some help with hiring, I’m available.

Woohoo!

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 04:57:04 GMT

Finally got some work! I’m helping out A Cloud Guru with some technical and non-technical roles, via Crew Talent Agency. Thanks to Simon for the opportunity ❤️

Light at the end of the tunnel

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 22:44:04 GMT

Please don't be a train, please don't be a train...

Melbourne has been under some form of restrictions for the past 183 days, claimed by some to be the most restrictive in the world. (Personally I think this is being a bit dramatic, but it’s likely not far off the truth.) Since August 2nd, we’ve been limited to a 5km radius from our homes with very few exceptions, and only one person per day can leave the house, once, for one of four approved reasons. For the most part we were not allowed to visit one another, and there was an overnight curfew imposed on the same date.

Australians don’t really go in for the whole chest-beating “how dare you infringe my civil liberties” thing (some grandstanding idiots aside) but there is no doubt that the pandemic has taken a huge toll on Victorians – one much higher than reflected in the case statistics. Jobs have been lost, businesses impacted, school years basically written off. The psychic impact of the isolation, anxiety, and fear will be with us for years to come.

Today, there is finally some cause for hope. New daily cases have been plummeting (from 686 on August 4th to just 5 today), the overnight curfew has been lifted, and in just three weeks we may see retail and distance restrictions being lifted. Hopefully, people will be somewhat sensible about this so that we don’t have a new spike and go back into lockdown – but our collective cabin fever is strong.

Personally, I can’t wait to just go for a drive without any particular destination or limit. I don’t even need to get out of the car – I just want to go somewhere else. I never realised how much I valued freedom of movement.

Three weeks to go. Fingers crossed.

2020 so far

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 04:51:04 GMT

Holy shit does this year suck.

January

February

Later in the month, I get taken to the hospital in an ambulance with some chest pain. (Turns out to be nothing.) Unrelatedly, we find and adopt a lost cat.

March

At this point, I am still optimistic that I’ll manage to find a new job within the next couple of months. Oh, my sweet summer child.

April

Remote schooling starts. This begins three weeks of utter frustration and rapidly degrading mental health on all our parts, until we abandon the attempt completely.

The kids and I discover Stardew Valley and lose most of the month to it.

May

Kids return to school! Thank fuck. Then our small concerns are put into perspective when the police murder a man in Minneapolis.

June

July

Melbourne goes back into lockdown. On the first day of lockdown, my wife starts having stomach pains. By two days later, they are bad enough that I have to drop her off at the emergency room (I’m not allowed in). After four days of bad hospital food, not much information, and a bunch of pain meds, her gallbladder is removed via keyhole surgery. This is not something you recover from quickly (duh!) and as of right now (two weeks later) she’s still unable to bend over, reach up, or lift heavy things. (But she’s okay!)

School goes back to remote learning. We have learned our lesson and are basically giving our kids very extended school holidays.

Now

As of today, I have been unemployed for six months. I’ve applied for 45 jobs, been ghosted 31 times, had 11 interviews, received zero offers. If not for being allowed to cash in some of our superannuation, we might have been homeless by now. If I don’t find something soon, we still might be.

My kids are depressed and lonely. They have video chats with friends and family, but it’s not the same. We’ve tried to keep them insulated from things as best we can, but they can feel the stress we’re under.

So many of my friends and family have lost their jobs, or had health scares, or something else. I don’t know a single person who’s having a good year. We can’t even come together to commiserate or share hugs.

For my family, this would already have been the worst year of our lives (so far, ha ha) even if it weren’t for everything going on in the world. As it is, I don’t know if we can take much more.

There are 159 days left in 2020 and I’m counting each and every last one.

Remote control

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 01:06:04 GMT

So you’re suddenly working from home.

Maybe that’s something you’ve done infrequently, or maybe it’s something you’ve never been allowed to do before.

Imagine the possibilities.

Sleep in until 8:55!
Avoid other human beings for weeks!
Cook your own lunch!
Have time for all those things you’ve neglected!

<sup>Have you heard the tale of Darth Plagueis the Remote?</sup>

I hate to break it to you, but… those things either a) aren’t good for you, or b) don’t happen without work. Intentional, conscious choices that you have to make every day.

You need a routine

When you have an office job, you have a pretty clear routine: Get up at a time that allows you to eat, shower, and get to work on time. Work until you see people going to lunch. Eat lunch. Work until you see people going home. Go home.

When home is your office, that changes. Get up at the time you have to start working. Eat when (or if) you notice you’re hungry. Work until you look at the time and realize you should have stopped already.

<sup>Twin Peaks > Jumanji</sup>

Unless you have a routine.

Think about it like this: if you’re suddenly working from home, your commute just got drastically shorter. Nothing else has changed.

You still need to get up, eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, and go to work. You still need to set an alarm. (You can just set it a little later.)

You still need to step away from your work at a predictable time to eat lunch. You still need to end work at a predictable time.

These things are important not because people will look at you funny (on the internet, nobody knows you’re still in pyjamas at noon) but because they’re essential to your mental well-being.

Routines are good for humans. They give us a sense of control, and of purpose. They build mental discipline:

An untamed mind is a minefield… Learning to craft routine is the equivalent of learning to let your conscious choices about what your day will be about guide you, letting all the other, temporary crap fall to the wayside.

<footer><a href="https://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-wiest/2015/10/the-psychology-of-daily-routine-7-reasons-why-people-who-do-the-same-things-each-day-tend-to-be-happier-than-those-who-chase-adventure/">The Psychology Of Daily Routine, Brianna Wiest</a></footer>

We become accustomed to our routines to such an extent that in the absence of them, we float through the day. Without our usual cues to take breaks or go home, we can forget to step away from work and take time for ourselves.

You need boundaries

My first home office was the space between my bed and the window – that was the only place I had to put a desk. My kids didn’t get that sometimes they could come in and play, and sometimes they couldn’t. Not only that but my brain couldn’t separate my resting space from my work space. Every time I walked past my desk, I felt compelled to check on work and make sure nothing was on fire. Any time I got a notification, I looked.

Did I mention I worked for a globally distributed company with people in just about every timezone? And that I had Slack on my phone, as well as the computer right there in my bedroom?

I got pinged constantly, and I felt as though I couldn’t ignore it. Other people are working, after all, and my desk is right there…

The end result was that if I was awake, I was working. Even on weekends.

It wasn’t sustainable.

Ultimately I had to set boundaries, to communicate those boundaries to everyone at work and at home, and to stick to them. Work email and Slack came off my phone, and work pings were silenced after I logged off.

Boundaries are essential if you want to survive remote working. If you can have a physical separation between the place where you work and the place where you live, that’s great – a separate office works wonders. If not, try setting up a space you can close down or pack away at the end of the day. You can also set up a ritual at the start and end of your day – even something as simple as a song you listen to, or a walk around the block. Your brain will pretty quickly begin to associate those things with “it’s work time!” and “it’s home time!”

Once you’re offline, stay offline. The world won’t end if you don’t answer that ping immediately. It can wait.

You need to look after yourself

Remote work makes it very simple to speak to very few people face to face. If you want, you can easily interact only with the people you live with, and you can spend a surprisingly long time within a 50-meter radius of your home.

You should not do this. (Even if you are an extreme introvert.)

<sup>Credit: <a href="https://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home">https://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home</a></sup>

Much like plants, humans need fresh air and sunlight. In Japan, the concept of shinrin-yoku – literally, “forest bathing” – has been around for decades. It originated to combat death from overwork. (At this point, it should probably go without saying that working until you literally die is a bad thing.)

Trees are great, but it turns out there’s an actual physiological benefit to this practice:

… being in nature made subjects, physiologically, less amped. The parasympathetic nerve system controls the body’s rest-and-digest system while the sympathetic nerve system governs fight-or-flight responses. Subjects were more rested and less inclined to stress after a forest bath.

<footer><a href="https://qz.com/804022/health-benefits-japanese-forest-bathing/">The Japanese practice of ‘forest bathing’ is scientifically proven to improve your health</a></footer>

Humans also need other humans. We need to share our experiences and feelings so that we can process them fully. Friends and family are especially important if your job is stressful – feelings of isolation will only deepen that stress and can even turn it into depression. (Granted, at the moment spending time with people might have to be via video chat, but it still counts.) Scheduling a regular time to connect with friends is one way to make sure you’re fulfilling your need for human contact – routine is good, remember? In fact, routines and boundaries are really just ways of ensuring you are looking after yourself.

Conclusion

Working from home is amazing, but the best thing about it can also be the worst thing: you are in control of your time. It’s all too easy to fall into bad habits, which in turn might burn you out, but will almost certainly lead you to conclude that working from home sucks. But it doesn’t have to suck – you just need to make time to understand what works best for you.

You wouldn’t put up with someone else imposing unhealthy working conditions on you, so don’t do it to yourself. Make sure you are setting up an environment in which you can be happy, productive, and healthy.

Thanks for reading!

By the way, I’m looking for a new role in tech recruiting at the moment - I can also help you set up solid remote-first work practices. Check out my résumé!

Cat++

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 07:29:04 GMT

import Cute from "@assets/images/cute.png"; import Yawn from "@assets/images/yawn.png";

Our temporary acquisition of a cat has become decidedly less temporary. Say hello to Ginger ❤️

(I know it’s not very imaginative, but it was the six-year-old’s turn to come up with a name 😆)

Welcome to the new blog

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 05:18:04 GMT

I decided to blow things up and start again, so I’ve moved everything across from my old WordPress.com blog to here. It’s a static site powered by Hexo, so it’s pretty darn fast, and it’s hosted at Netlify.

Here’s a photo of the cat we found on the roof of the construction site next door. We’re trying to find her family, but she fits in very well with our existing menagerie.

RIP 2019 (2019-2019)

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 12:04:04 GMT

import Firstday from "@assets/images/firstday.jpg"; import Organisers from "@assets/images/organisers.jpg"; import Bangkok from "@assets/images/bangkok.jpg"; import Unimpressed from "@assets/images/unimpressed.jpg"; import Burj from "@assets/images/burj.jpg"; import Badge from "@assets/images/badge.jpg"; import Stupa from "@assets/images/stupa.jpg"; import Kat from "@assets/images/kat.jpg"; import Me_phuket from "@assets/images/me_phuket.jpg"; import Sm_cat from "@assets/images/sm_cat.jpg"; import Lg_cat from "@assets/images/lg_cat.jpg"; import Mustang from "@assets/images/mustang.jpg"; import Raft2 from "@assets/images/raft2.jpg"; import Crew2 from "@assets/images/crew2.jpg"; import Coors2 from "@assets/images/coors2.jpg"; import Giraffe from "@assets/images/giraffe.jpg"; import Wedding from "@assets/images/wedding.jpg"; import View3 from "@assets/images/view3.jpg"; import Meat2 from "@assets/images/MEAT2.jpg"; import Team from "@assets/images/team.jpg"; import Quo from "@assets/images/quo.jpg"; import Gabby from "@assets/images/gabby.jpg"; import Scarlett2 from "@assets/images/scarlett2.jpg"; import Capitol from "@assets/images/capitol.jpg"; import Supreme from "@assets/images/supreme.jpg"; import Wash from "@assets/images/wash.jpg"; import Linc from "@assets/images/linc.jpg"; import Challenger from "@assets/images/challenger.jpg"; import Columbia from "@assets/images/columbia.jpg"; import Bbq2 from "@assets/images/bbq2.jpg"; import Hockey from "@assets/images/hockey.jpg"; import Elevators from "@assets/images/elevators.jpg"; import Symmetry from "@assets/images/symmetry.jpg"; import Cloudy from "@assets/images/cloudy.jpg"; import Reflections from "@assets/images/reflections.jpg";

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Recap

January

New year, new car, new nephew.

February

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Firstday.src} alt="Two children in school uniform" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> First day of school! </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Organisers.src} alt="Six people posing together" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> RubyConf AU organisers </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Bangkok.src} alt="A street scene" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Bangkok street scene </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Unimpressed.src} alt="A cat staring at the camera" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Unimpressed cat is unimpressed </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>I have questions, but I wish I'd bought them</sup>

<sup>mmm, Bonchon chicken</sup>

Josie started grade 2, Alex started foundation – peace and quiet in the house six hours a day, five days a week. Co-organised RubyConf AU 2019, along with Pat, Caitlin, Sam, Phil and Sharon. Spoke at WordCamp Bangkok, fell in love with Bonchon chicken, ate Bangkok’s best tom yum, went to a cat cafe.

March

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Burj.src} alt="A view of the Dubai skyline in the distance" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> As close as I got to the Burj </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Stupa.src} alt="A Buddhist temple" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Dharmadahatu stupa </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Badge.src} alt="A speaker badge" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Speaker badge </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Kat.src} alt="A cat" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Kathmandu cat </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Giant vajra in the hotel courtyard</sup>

<sup> View of the Kathmandu Valley from Swayambhunath, AKA the Monkey Temple </sup>

Spoke at WordCamp Cebu, hung out in Hong Kong a little on the way back but didn’t have time to do much. Saw Captain Marvel. Spoke at WordCamp Kathmandu, visited some temples, narrowly avoided being mugged and/or ripped off twice.

April

<sup>Great photo by Anne 🙂</sup>

<sup>Red velvet waffles - Phuket's dessert game was on point</sup>

<sup>Old Town Phuket</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Sm_cat.src} alt="A cat lying on a car roof" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Phuket cat (small) </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Lg_cat.src} alt="A sleeping tiger up close" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Phuket cat (large) </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>This one got a little frisky 😳</sup>

<sup>Sailing with the team</sup>

Team meetup in Phuket. Lots of work, but also hung out with tigers and went sailing. Spent the day in Singapore on the way back, saw Avengers: Endgame, did some shopping.

May

<sup>I'm seein' double - four Krustys!</sup>

Eurovision! (Joel and Myf are the worst – sadly, SBS did not find new hosts for 2020.) Federal election, in which the schadenfreude of seeing Tony Abbott defeated was diminished by Bill Shorten losing an unloseable election. The girls and I did a portrait photography class at the Apple Store.

June

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Mustang.src} alt="A Ford Mustang" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> I love Mustangs </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Raft2.src} alt="Six men posing on a whitewater raft" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Rafting on Clear Creek </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Great view from North Boulder Park</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Crew2.src} alt="Wedding attendees" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> The old crew </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Coors2.src} alt="A ballpark" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Coors Field </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>The happy couple</sup>

Two weeks in CO for Rob and Beth’s wedding ❤️ Drove a Mustang around, visited old haunts, went to a Rockies game, caught up with many old friends, went whitewater rafting. So grateful to Brie and Charlie for the hospitality!

July

<sup>Welcome to the family, Pippa</sup>

<sup>Climbing is fun</sup>

Rare month without travel. Josie discovered she likes climbing. Signed a lease for our new house in Yarra Bend – a massive improvement on our old shoebox. Met Pippa 😍

August

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Giraffe.src} alt="A stage with a title screen" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Showtime! </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Wedding.src} alt="A wedding invitation" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> A lovely occasion with lovely people </figcaption> </figure> </div>

Moved house – never, ever again. Attended Josie’s concert, in which she had a lead role. Had a hand in some research we published at work. Visited Brisbane for Caitlin and Geoffrey’s wedding ❤️

Scarlett has picked out her spot in the new house.

September

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={View3.src} alt="A view from a hotel window" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Not a bad view </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Meat2.src} alt="An extremely large piece of meat" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> This thing utterly defeated me </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Team.src} alt="A selfie including a large number of people" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Just me and 806 of my colleagues </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Quo.src} alt="Artwork in the style of an album cover" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Great custom artwork </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>At the closing party</sup>

Automattic’s Grand Meetup was in Orlando again, this time during my 45th birthday.

October

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Gabby.src} alt="A cat stretched out in the sun" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Gabriella </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Scarlett2.src} alt="A cat looking at the camera" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Scarlett </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>We had a giant LiteBrite!</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Capitol.src} alt="The US Capitol building" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Capitol </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Supreme.src} alt="The US Supreme Court building" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Supreme Court </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Best waffles EVER</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Wash.src} alt="The Washington Monument" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Washington Monument </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Linc.src} alt="The Lincoln Memorial" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Lincoln Memorial </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Challenger.src} alt="A memorial for the Challenger astronauts" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Challenger Memorial </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Columbia.src} alt="A memorial for the Columbia astronauts" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Columbia Memorial </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Bbq2.src} alt="A plate of barbecue" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Awesome BBQ at Sugarfire in St Louis </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Hockey.src} alt="A wide view of a hockey arena" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Nosebleed seats for Blues vs Wild </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Elevators.src} alt="A cramped elevator" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> The elevators in the Arch are tiny </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Symmetry.src} alt="A view of the Gateway Arch" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> I just liked the symmetry of this shot </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Going up!</sup>

Back to the US for the third time this year. Spent a lot of the month in Washington, DC (phpworld) and St Louis (WordCamp US). Did quite a bit of exploring in DC, but did not get to the Air & Space Museum or the Udvar-Hazy Center. Went to the top of the Gateway Arch in St Louis and took in a Blues game – the Enterprise Center is an amazing fan experience. Many excellent carbs.

November

<sup>Goodnight, sweet girl 💔</sup>

Back home. Visit with my folks, in part to say goodbye to Baillie 😢

December

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Cloudy.src} alt="Cloudy weather" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Better weather than Melbourne, at least </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Reflections.src} alt="Nighttime photo with lights reflecting on a pool" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Reflections </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Xmas Eve tradition</sup>

Frozen 2 with the girls, team meetup in Da Nang, Xmas with family and a sorely needed break to hang out and do nothing for once. Finished the year with Star Wars and said goodbye to 2019 with all the respect it deserved.

Stats

Travel

Countries visited: 6 – Thailand (twice), Philippines, Nepal, Singapore (twice), US (three times), Vietnam (⬇️ 14%)
Flights: 37 (⬆️ 3%)
Distance flown: 192,729 km (⬆️ 42%)
Time in the air: 249 hours (⬆️ 36%)
Swarm checkins: 1,331 (⬇️ 14%)
🆕 Swarm mayorships: 60 (⬆️ 5%)
🆕 Status: Premier Platinum with United 🎉

Music

Minutes: 11,293 (⬇️ 8%)
Top artists: Taylor Swift, Blackpink 🆕, Beastie Boys, Silversun Pickups, Blood Red Shoes

Books

You have read 80 of 40 books in 2019.

<footer>goodreads.com</footer>

This was mostly due to Kindle Unlimited being linked to Goodreads. The best things I read this year were probably Midnight in Chernobyl and Bad Blood.

2020’s goal is 100 books.

Health

Steps: 1,380,795 (⬇️ 17% – largely due to working from home)
Weight: ⬆️ 10% 😭
Sleep stats were not tracked consistently as I can no longer wear my Apple Watch 🙁

This post was made possible by Google Timeline, Google Photos, Swarm and (what remains of) my Twitter history compensating for my woeful memory.

Colorado

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 03:14:04 GMT

<sup>Pre-rafting</sup>

<sup>Look at these clowns</sup>

<sup>The happy couple</sup>

<sup>That famous view</sup>

<sup>Let's go Rockies!</sup>

Soon.

Mon, 27 May 2019 06:07:04 GMT

SOON.

5/14/2019, 10:12:00 AM

Tue, 14 May 2019 00:12:00 GMT

Prompted by this article, I am drinking a gallon (3.96L) of water per day. No superpowers yet. I am drinking a lot less coffee though, which is surprising.

Pretty

Thu, 02 May 2019 23:15:04 GMT

The new Ruby AU site launched today, and it is very pretty. Congrats to the committee on completing a long process of renewal (a process that began about three years ago, if I remember correctly) and thanks to Deming Factor for the fantastic design.

RIP 2018 (2018-2018)

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 12:18:04 GMT

import Scarlett from "@assets/images/scarlett.jpg"; import Ferry from "@assets/images/ferry.jpg"; import Goodbye from "@assets/images/goodbye.jpg"; import Sookie from "@assets/images/sookie.jpg"; import Dinner from "@assets/images/dinner.jpg"; import Myeong from "@assets/images/myeong.jpg"; import Panic from "@assets/images/panic.jpg"; import Tower from "@assets/images/tower.jpg"; import Assteeth from "@assets/images/assteeth.jpg"; import Bails from "@assets/images/bails.jpg"; import Grill from "@assets/images/grill.jpg"; import Scones from "@assets/images/scones.jpg"; import Brekky from "@assets/images/brekky.jpg"; import Oldbeg from "@assets/images/oldbeg.jpg"; import Newbeg from "@assets/images/newbeg.jpg"; import Hk from "@assets/images/hk.jpg"; import Peeps from "@assets/images/peeps.jpg"; import Ubernom from "@assets/images/ubernom.jpg"; import Diagon from "@assets/images/diagon.jpg"; import Hall from "@assets/images/hall.jpg"; import Hiking2 from "@assets/images/hiking2.jpg"; import Hb from "@assets/images/hb.jpg"; import Pr from "@assets/images/pr.jpg"; import Swim from "@assets/images/swim.jpg"; import Donut from "@assets/images/donut.jpg"; import Quinn from "@assets/images/quinn.jpg"; import Obey2 from "@assets/images/obey2.jpg"; import Shiny from "@assets/images/shiny.jpg";

It seems like just a year ago we welcomed you into our lives 😭

</iframe>

Recap

January

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Scarlett.src} alt="A cat in a sink" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Miss Scarlett </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Ferry.src} alt="A father and daughter on a ferry" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> On the Taronga Zoo ferry </figcaption> </figure> </div>

Feasted. Took a week off work and thought about moving house again (we didn’t, phew). Welcomed Cameron to Lookahead and then gave notice later the same week. Took Josie on her first ever plane trip.

February

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Goodbye.src} alt="Three people around a restaurant table" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Goodbye Lookahead! </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Sookie.src} alt="A slice of key lime pie" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Mmm, key lime pie </figcaption> </figure> </div>

Indulged in glorious schadenfreude. Said goodbye to my friends and started my new job, after a ten-week interview process in which I interacted with people only via Slack. (This is completely intentional, and is how I interview and hire people today.) Played a lot of Alto’s Odyssey. Ate some pie.

March

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Dinner.src} alt="A restaurant table crowded with dishes" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> A light dinner </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Myeong.src} alt="Many people in a busy outdoor shopping district" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Strolling around Myeongdong </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Panic.src} alt="An emergency alert text message in Korean" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> So do we panic, or...? </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Tower.src} alt="A tower at nighttime" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Seoul Tower </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Assteeth.src} alt="A sign reading Ass Teeth" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> A tattoo parlour </figcaption> </figure> </div>

Went on my first Automattic work trip, to Seoul. Walked up and down a lot of hills, ate a lot of good food, got to know my teammates, got a mysterious and potentially horrifying emergency alert text,[^1] met some local wildlife, admired some business names, ate a Crunchwrap. Came home and slept.

<sup>Animal cafe fun</sup>

April

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Bails.src} alt="A brown dog on a couch" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Baillie </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Grill.src} alt="Meat on a grill" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Mmm, meat </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Scones.src} alt="Scones with jam and cream" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Mmm, scones </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Alex at Scienceworks</sup>

Feasted again. Took Alex to Scienceworks for a fun afternoon. Watched some baseball. Eliminated retweets from my Twitter timeline and never looked back.

May

<sup>Werewolf</sup>

<sup>Brisbane sunshine</sup>

The most wonderful time of the year. Also, Rails Camp!

June

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Brekky.src} alt="A menu offering donuts for breakfast" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Mmm, traditional! </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Oldbeg.src} alt="Classical European architecture" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Old Belgrade </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Newbeg.src} alt="Dilapidated Soviet-era architecture" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> New Belgrade </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Hk.src} alt="A city view from a bus window" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Hong Kong from the airport shuttle </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>Sorry Vienna, I am a child</sup>

RIP, Tony. MEL-HKG-MUC-BEG, nine-hour layover in Munich. On to Belgrade for WordCamp Europe. First WordCamp, first time in Eastern Europe, loved it. BEG-VIE-HKG-MEL, 9-hour layovers in Vienna and Hong Kong on the way back.

July

<a href="/images/pano.png" target="_blank"> </a> <sup>Click to embiggen!</sup>

Recovered. WordCamp Sydney. Chaperoned 60 first-graders to a children’s farm (shudder). Spent a night on Philip Island.

August

<sup>Crazy girls ❤️</sup>

Deactivated my Twitter. Celebrated birthdays with my girls.

September

<sup>I'm not saying I broke the law, but this thing went fast</sup>

<sup>My spiritual home</sup>

Reactivated Twitter, though not before deleting 85% of my history. Turned 44. Visited the US for the first time in 12 years. Drove an awesome Camaro, visited Kennedy Space Center.

October

<sup> Pete's Breakfast Burrito Supreme </sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Diagon.src} alt="A dragon perched on a building" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> So awesome! </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Peeps.src} alt="Five men in a backyard" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Me, Charlie, Wiley, Chris & Rob </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<sup>The Flatirons are back there somewhere</sup>

Spent a week with all my work peeps in Orlando, had a fantastic time. They closed Diagon Alley for us! ❤️ Stopped by Denver on the way home and saw lots of people for the first time in ages. Visited the Sunshine State for WordCamp Brisbane.

November

More Rails Camp. First visit to Tasmania since I was 2, loved it. Not much else, Rails Camp consumed my life (and Caitlin’s!) most of the month.

<sup>Hiking on Mt Wellington with Caitlin and Geoffrey</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Hall.src} alt="A hall lit up at nighttime" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Camp Woodfield </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Hiking2.src} alt="Trees and ferns" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> More hiking </figcaption> </figure> </div>

December

<sup>Chris making tortillas from scratch</sup>

<sup>Hello, I'm Johnny Cash</sup>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Hb.src} alt="A piece of Nashville hot chicken" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Hot chicken </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Pr.src} alt="Another piece of Nashville hot chicken" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Super hot chicken </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Swim.src} alt="People swimming in a cenote" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Cenote swimming in Tulum </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Donut.src} alt="A wall of donuts" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Donut wall! </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Quinn.src} alt="A cocker spaniel" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Mum's new pupper </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Obey2.src} alt="A sign for the Taylor Swift Education Center" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Hello, I'm Taylor Swift </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Shiny.src} alt="An Apple Watch on a wrist" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> New shiny! </figcaption> </figure> </div>

Started the Focus Course. MEL-LAX-ORD-BNA. WordCamp US, loved it. Ate both kinds of Nashville hot chicken, lots of biscuits and gravy. BNA-IAH-CUN. DevEx meetup in Tulum, minus a Matías (sabbatical) but plus a Cate (six-month rotation). Got lots done, super productive. Good food, cooking class, ziplining, swimming in cenotes, highly recommended. CUN-LAX-MEL, came within four minutes of finding out what happens when you miss your international flight due to customs taking forever 🙄 Xmas, family, love. Sleep.

Stats

Travel

Countries visited: 7 – South Korea, Germany, Serbia, Austria, Hong Kong, USA, Mexico (⬆️ 700%)
Flights: 36 (⬆️ 50%)
Distance flown: 126,876 km (⬆️ 411%)
Time in the air: 183 hours (⬆️ 366%)
Swarm checkins: 1,536 (⬇️ 4%)

Music

Minutes: 12,319
Top artists: Taylor Swift, Beastie Boys, Green Day, Lake Street Dive, Black Keys

Books

You have read 23 of 70 books in 2018.

<footer>goodreads.com</footer>

I will fix this in 2019.

Health

Steps: 1,664,622
Weight: ⬆️ 12% 😭
Average sleep time: 5h 52m
Average wake time: 6:26am

This post was made possible by Exist, Google Timeline, Google Photos, Swarm and (what remains of) my Twitter history compensating for my woeful memory.

[^1]: It was about parking restrictions 🤦‍♂️

Meetups

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 07:56:04 GMT

import Postits from "@assets/images/postits.jpg"; import Menu from "@assets/images/menu.jpg"; import Mortar from "@assets/images/mortar.jpg"; import Pot from "@assets/images/pot.jpg"; import Cave from "@assets/images/cave.jpg"; import Cenote from "@assets/images/cenote.jpg"; import Forgive from "@assets/images/forgive.jpg";

Meetups are a pretty key feature of working in a distributed company. They’re how you get to really know your colleagues, how you build a culture, and how you build and sustain relationships with people who are otherwise just text on a screen.

Our trip to Mexico was my third meetup, counting our all-company Grand Meetup in September. We got an amazing amount done, which is what happens when you put really clever people in a room for a week and stuff them full of good food.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Postits.src} alt="Post-it notes on a window" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> We went through a LOT of post-its </figcaption> </figure> </div>

We also had time for some fun activities, which also mostly centred around food. We visited someone’s home and learned how to make salsa verde, corn tortillas and carne con nopales…

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Menu.src} alt="A chalk-written menu" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> OM NOM NOM </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Mortar.src} alt="A man using a mortar and pestle" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Nikolay hard at work </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Pot.src} alt="Pots on a stove" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Soup and pudding on the stove </figcaption> </figure> </div>

…and we went into the Mayan jungle to zip line through the trees and swim in cenotes.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Cave.src} alt="Stalactites in a cave" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Stalactites </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Cenote.src} alt="People swimming in a cenote" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Swimming in a cenote </figcaption> </figure> </div>

All in all, meetups are good and if you get the chance to go on one, I highly recommend them.

WCUS 2018

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 03:47:04 GMT

import Bbq from "@assets/images/bbq.jpg"; import Ribs from "@assets/images/ribs.jpg"; import Honk from "@assets/images/honk.jpg"; import Cross from "@assets/images/cross.jpg"; import Art1 from "@assets/images/art1.jpg"; import Art2 from "@assets/images/art2.jpg"; import Art3 from "@assets/images/art3.jpg"; import Obey2 from "@assets/images/obey2.jpg"; import Smash from "@assets/images/smash.jpg";

WordCamp US in Nashville was super fun. Met a whole lot of cool developers, customers and fellow Automatticians.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Bbq.src} alt="A crowded dinner table" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Automatticians at Martin's Bar-B-Que in downtown </figcaption> </figure> </div>

Really enjoyed wandering around downtown. Sadly, the Preds weren’t in town though.

Definitely looking forward to visiting again sometime. See you next year in St Louis!

So, SO good

Sat, 08 Dec 2018 10:08:04 GMT

The Hot tenders at Prince's.

Verdict: Prince's. They were both excellent hot chicken, but as a piece of fried chicken Prince's was better.

So good

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 04:08:04 GMT

The Damn Hot tenders at Hattie B's.

Nashville sunset

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 07:18:04 GMT

Pretty.

Awooooo 🐺

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 04:21:04 GMT

import Wolf from "@assets/images/wolf.png"; import Hike1 from "@assets/images/hike1.png"; import Hike2 from "@assets/images/hike2.png"; import Hike3 from "@assets/images/hike3.png"; import Fire from "@assets/images/fire.png";

Rails Camps are one of my favourite things, which explains why this most recent one was my seventh in three-ish years, and the second I’ve co-organised. There’s just something about getting away from civilisation, spending some time with good humans, hacking away on a project, and playing Werewolf all night.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Wolf.src} alt="People gathered in a converted chapel" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Something about playing Werewolf in a chapel felt... weird </figcaption> </figure> </div>

This time around I even gave a talk, which was received well enough that I’m going to give it some polish and see what happens.

Ruby Australia has its general meeting and elections at Rails Camps, and this one marked the end of my tenure as President. I wish the new committee all the best and know they’ll do an amazing job.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Fire.src} alt="People gathered around a fireplace" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Even in November, Tasmania gets <b>chilly</b> </figcaption> </figure> </div>

And now, to sleep.

Sleepy

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 23:36:04 GMT

You know what’s weird? Watching humans sleep is creepy, but watching cats sleep isn’t 🤔

Recent travels

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 09:39:04 GMT

import Shuttle from "@assets/images/shuttle.jpg"; import Coffee from "@assets/images/coffee.jpg"; import Brothers from "@assets/images/brothers.jpg"; import Bne from "@assets/images/bne.jpg";

MEL-LAX-MCO-DEN-LAX-MEL-BNE-MEL.

(Not all at once.)

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Brothers.src} alt="Four men arm in arm" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> More like brothers than friends </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Coffee.src} alt="A sign which asks if you are looking for coffee" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Pretty much always </figcaption> </figure> </div>

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Shuttle.src} alt="A space shuttle on display in a museum" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> The ACTUAL SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ZOMG 🤯 </figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Bne.src} alt="Town hall in Brisbane" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;"> Brisbane, you pretty </figcaption> </figure> </div>

9/7/2018, 6:49:04 PM

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 08:49:04 GMT

Listen to this and you'll be able to say "oh yeah, I was into her before she got famous".

Tortuga Backpacks

Mon, 03 Sep 2018 01:04:04 GMT

I’ve been shopping around for a new travel bag, and I’d pretty much decided on the Tortuga Setout Backpack… then I read this article and was definitely sold:

Tortuga’s team is distributed, meaning that everyone sets their own hours and chooses where to live and work. In effect, that means that as long as they have access to Wi-Fi, Team Tortuga can travel nonstop.

Hey, that sounds familiar 😄

Now the only question is whether I can get it before the Grand Meetup in late September. Living in Australia is great until you need to buy things on the internet 😭

👋 Twitter

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 01:04:04 GMT

To paraphrase this article, it’s far less likely that future society will be reading my tweets to gain insight into who I was, than it is that some asshole will trawl through my Twitter feed to find some tweet where I sounded like a jerk. So I’ve deleted about 63,000 tweets, leaving only the last 12 months, and every month I’ll delete another 30 days worth.

I’m not leaving Twitter just yet, but it won’t be such a big deal anymore if I have to.

Liberating.

edit: I left.

edit2: And then Alex Jones was asked to leave, and I went back.

much, much later edit3: Deleted everything years ago, but squatting on my handle so nobody else can have it.

Sunday afternoon

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 01:04:04 GMT

import AlexZoom from "@assets/images/alex_zoom.jpg"; import Josie from "@assets/images/josie.jpg";

Not bad so far.

<div style="display: flex; gap: 1rem; margin-left: -1.5rem; margin-right: -1.5rem;"> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={AlexZoom.src} alt="A grinning child" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;">Alex</figcaption> </figure> <figure style="flex: 1;"> <img src={Josie.src} alt="A child drawing" /> <figcaption style="text-align: left; font-size: 0.8rem;">Josie</figcaption> </figure> </div>

Welcome.

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:04:04 GMT

Make yourself comfortable.