a very busy, go-go-go week. I think I’m working a little too hard, and I’ve stretched myself quite thin. August will be my month of rest, I’m sure. it’s been rainy over this week, which means it’s been cool temperature wise.

miscellanea

• discovered BusAndTrainUser while looking up some , and subscribed via RSS
• my office chair is slowly grinding my lower vertebrae into a fine dust, so I need a new one. I'd rather have a good chair later (like an Aeron), than a crap chair now
• I have great admiration for people who have the capacity to summon others, to get them to come to things, an to carve time out of their incredibly busy lives
• Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, but they’re keeping the newsletter and renaming it Ten Tabs. that was my reason for having it in the first place.
• it’s wild to me that the little chocolate dessert pots from Cadbury barely contain anything but take up 7% recommended daily calories
• Read about Terence Eden’s interrailing adventure. I’d like to go on one at some point over the next few years!
• Looks like Space Force Budget Cuts episode is coming true, even down to the cutting of non-essential missions already in progress

musings

• I've been offered SQE tuition, which I’d be interested in! it would be nice to get another qualification, but I'd need to do an MSc to become a solicitor. also the exams cost £5K
• been thinking about structuring teams, specifically how to get them to build and to work together.
  • had a chat with Alona about Rust's release cycle a few weeks ago when I visited Cambridge. she raised a few interesting points I've been thinking about
  • drawing a lot of inspiration from the ways of working at 37Signals, with a twist of a ‘release week’ where new features are announced to customers to build and maintain momentum, similar to Supabase. the only complication with this is that where I work is B2B, and isn't focussed on developer tooling.
• my hiking shoes are super worn, so I need to get new ones. initially considered Doc Martens, but their quality has apparently decreased over the past few years, so I'm thinking Solovair instead
• considering a version of envi for Python. our codebase at work would absolutely benefit from that, as a way to check the .env.example file is up to date
• finished Wandavision, it was as good as I remember. started Squid Game, and I'm surprised at how good it is
• UPSAHL’s debut album Lady Jesus is a broadly inoffensive uptempo pop album, bringing nothing particularly exciting or innovative to the world of dance music. it performs its function well, with each of its ten tracks having a boppy beat and catchy-enough hooks. The titular track Lady Jesus is a typical punk-rock indie-pop track, reminiscent of something like Maisie Peters' Not Another Rockstar. 3/5

misadventures

• I bought a plum doughnut from the Polish shop around the corner, and I didn’t like it very much. :(
• cooked a blue Stilton and steak pie from Lidl on Monday night, and did some mashed potatoes and gravy to go along with it. had a pint of Asahi too.
  • the gravy initially turned out to be too salty, but I managed to save it by cutting it with sugar and apple cider vinegar.
  • accidentally discovered the secret to perfect mashed potatoes while cooking on Monday
• got drafted in for Ration Club on Tuesday evening, and decided to do bangers and mash with onion gravy, peas and corn on the Wednesday. cooked for ~20 that evening, managing to perfect my mashed potatoes on Tuesday at Ration Club
  • went to Morrisons and got shopping, including plain pork, apple, onion, Cumberland sausages. did a mix of sweetcorn and petit pois mix
  • cooked with Simpkins as a sous chef
  • the secret is to leave the butter and milk on the countertop to warm up to room temperature, so the potatoes won’t seize when you add them. also, mash the potatoes over a double boiler so they don't dry out.
  • made the gravy vegan with olive oil instead of butter for the roux, vegan OXO cubes and vegan cream. when checking the ingredients of the stock cubes, I realised a lot of MSG is what made it so delicious.
• picked up 24 bottles of soap from the post office on Tuesday. surprisingly didn’t get any weird looks. I still haven’t had the bleach delivered, but managed to wrangle a refund from Amazon. reordered the bleach alongside a Britta filter jug, as I don’t drink nearly enough water and I want a dedicated water vessel. that jug was promptly delivered into my recycling bin, and taken away.
• got my new passport on Wednesday! ummediately signed it and took note of the numbers. however, somehow managed to misplace my drivers license
• managed to grind out some database schema work on Wednesday. Almost done, which is good! feels like we’re moving in the right direction, which I need more of right now
• sent an email to my Teaching Programming across Disciplines chapter collaborators on Tuesday, we’re going to write an outline.
• went to Portsmouth for the weekend and crashed at a friend's, got there an hour early because I caught the wrong train
  • saw a bunch of street art while walking around in Portsmouth. it’s really cool and I wish I had more around me in London
  • watched The Amazing Digital Circus, as well as the Summer Game Fest main show. we tried to watch IGN’s pre-show coverage, but it felt like the oped section of the paper personified
• End of Abyss, Mouse PI for hire, Killer Inn and MindsEye all look good!Atomic Heart 2 looked interesting, and I can’t remember why I didn’t play the first Atomic Heart
• played as the cow Mario Kart World on the Switch 2. it's an interesting game, because you’ve got to drive between courses and that counts as some of your laps. came 2nd on 50cc and 6th on 100cc. free roamed the map a bit, it looks nice
  • the Switch 2 Welcome Tour costs £9, which is insane. also, to get 100% in it, you have to buy additional accessories and must have a 4K TV. imagine buying a console for £400, and forking out an extra £100 for the welcome tour. even My Body Is Ready guy disagrees with this madness.
• was meant to go clubbing on Saturday evening, didn’t have any cash I couldn’t buy tickets. decided to head back to my friend’s, and we started It Takes Two.