weeknotes for w/c 04/11/24

started this update in the Barcelona El Prat airport lounge, continued it on the plane to London, finished it at home. it's been such a good week. i feel a little tired, but also fulfilled and excited for next week.

• rolled out the experiment at work on Monday. over the next week, it'll collect data. as i'm on holiday, i've left the project in the hands of a colleague. 👀
• i accidentally unplugged two homelab servers one after the other on Monday. although it was fun to see the blip on my uptime monitoring, it would be nicer to avoid the problem in the first place with better cable management. 😬
• travelled to Barcelona on Tuesday 🛫
  • managed to get through airport security in a record 13 minutes and 13 seconds.
  • one of my Uni-ball pens overflowed at the tip during the flight, ruining a page in my notebook. i need to order more pens when i get home, because they're my favourite.
  • noticed there's some high-pitched whining intermittently coming from my XM4s, so i might need to replace them
  • was absolutely shattered from travelling on Tuesday
• was really busy in Barcelona! it was a solid trip. not too much of a holiday, but the change of scenery was nice 🌴
  • spent most of Wednesday recovering from the flight and writing my talk
  • got invited to the final day of the Smart Cities Expo in Barcelona on Thursday, which was all about mobility. i found it a little boring and chock-full of elite projection. i simply believe we need to build more public transportation infrastructure to support growing populations... but hey, what do I know?
  • spent Friday going sight-seeing. went to the Joan Miró Foundation in the morning, and bought a few bits and pieces from the gallery shop, including a couple of bookmarks, a desk calendar and a book about British art in the 60s and 70s. got ice cream and walked along Barceloneta Beach in the afternoon
• went out to dinner a handful of times this week, with friends who live in Barcelona or who were just passing through. it was lovely!
• had dinner with two friends on Friday night, i decided to forgo the metro ride back and just walk it. Barcelona is very pretty.
• had brunch on Sunday, which was a brilliant way to end my holiday in Barcelona
• while there, i put a lot of pressure on myself not to be the typical inconsiderate and belligerent tourist. i'd like to think i did a pretty good job
• i want to get back into learning Spanish, but i'm terrified of how quickly people here speak. being the uncultured heathen i am, Catalan looks similar to Spanish too, which throws me off quite a bit 🫨
• had a few little wins in Spanish this week! 🇪🇸
  • asked a stranger on the metro the names of their dogs in Spanish, they were Ella and Baba
  • ordered a coffee and doughnut in Barcelona Sants train station entirely in Spanish!
  • ordered a beer in Spanish, too!
• got recommended two books this week, The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai and The Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout. started reading On Anarchism on the plane back 📖
• on Saturday, i went to uncodebar Barcelona at Travelperk's offices. there were quite a few good sessions! i'm sad i couldn't go to all of them, but i'll definitely incorporate what i've learnt into my HalfStack talk next Wednesday! 🎤
  • a good talk by Andrea Cortés about how empowering yet terrifying personal resilience is when job-seeking
  • another good interactive session by Kate Marshalkina about mentorship.
    • this talk was particularly useful because i've signed up for mentorship with Coding Black Females and i've been a little nervous about it. however, Kate's helped me change my perspective and i'm excited now, instead of scared shitless.
    • i appreciated the use of Excalidraw as a visual aid during a group discussion. i'm definitely stealing that idea for my next interactive talk, because i find they fall flat most of the time.
  • a good session by Mar Diog about the practical solutions for tackling impostor syndrome, and how to make y0ur internal monologue kinder. they were a phenomenal facilitator, with an excellent single-slide visual aid.
  • went to the pub after, which was really good!
• as i settle down from the holiday and the flurry of activity this week, i think i've got a lot of things cooking. it's a little frustrating nothing's "over the line" yet, though. heading back to work, i feel i just need the satisfaction of a job well done. 🎆
  • i'm excited to get my HalfStack talk done and dusted so i can feel a sense of accomplishment. it's been an insane amount of work, and i'm excited to see it come to fruition
  • i have a handful of things planned for the next four weeks which should help me end my year well, including
    • a call with my Coding Black Females mentee
    • a few conferences and academic sessions, including my HalfStack talk, the BarCamp London XIII unconference and an event with Afro Dino Hack to introduce young scientists to open data standards
• a few more vaccines(!!)
• going to see a friend's play
• another hike (or two!)
• i've think i've fallen in love with Barcelona, and i'd love to move here, even if it's only for a year. the world is so big, and so wild and wonderful, that i would love to see more of it... even if it's just a bit. 💕