quite an eventful week, as I've finally recovered from c3flu. headed into the office a bunch to meet with some remote colleagues who've travelled in, demo an internal CLI tool I'm working on and make a cuppa. also spent a lot of time being quite social, which I rather enjoyed

miscellanea

• no, I don't want to rent my PC from you, Jeff Bezos. I'm currently holding my head in my hands
• came across this brilliant piece on how to actually network without feeling like a sycophant on Fedi. in short, take a genuine interest in people and just be friendly. stop asking strangers you don't know for favours
• Matrix seems like a bit of a pain, so much so some people are leaving. I'm glad my painful experience self-hosting it wasn't due (solely) to my own incompetence
• Bino the Elephant walked so Rick and Morty could run
• came across a very depressing, yet enlightening, Sky News documentary on the state of the UK's hollowed out chemicals industry
• saw HX train 424139 with DUBLIN emblazoned on the side, in bold letters. I'm not sure whether it means
  • this train is named Dublin
  • you can fly from Heathrow to Dublin
  • you can catch this particular Heathrow Express train to Dublin

musings

• one of the best things about being an adult is you can just declare naptime, and people have to respect it
• I'm actively searching for new music recommendations. last time I wrote about this, I got pointed in the direction of Ada Rook, so I once again consult the crowds for their wisdom
• I need an "I am content with my gender identity" shirt, so people stop asking questions
• I've noticed hunger manifests as an unshakeable feeling of anxiety and existential dread. I should probably eat on time, but who cares about that?
• businesses that don’t prominently display the opening times on their website drive me up the wall. how hard is it to put that information in your footer?
• this whole AI bubble irritates me so much. I don't think AI companies have fulfilled the promise they sell: true reduction of toil. yes, AI can make people more efficient, but I don't think an increase in efficiency is the same as reducing the work that someone does
• considering upgrading to a new Mac before component prices get any crazier. RAM and SSD prices are a vertical line up at the minute
• it’s great TfL tracks buses with the same technology used to track ships, but it’s absolutely useless if the buses never show up. this has happened about three times this week, and made me late at least once.
  • the fact that buses in my neck of the woods tend to be so infrequent and unreliable is frustrating, as they're necessary to get me to more predictable modes of transport.
  • the worst thing is there’s nothing I can do except leave a ridiculous amount (~45m) of buffer time. imagine leaving almost an hour early to everywhere you'd like to go
• excited to reach a stable baseline so I can spend some time experimenting with myself this year, looking forward to moving at some point. I feel like there's so much I'd like to do, if only I had the physical space. I’d also love to move somewhere within walking distance of a mainline train station

misadventures

• throughout this week, I sent Maciej some good memes I've scraped off the Internet this week to make into stickers for EMF.
  • EMF tickets go on sale soon, and I'm really excited! I've considered joining orga given I know a few people helping out, but I don't have the time or energy for that this year.
• asked a colleague at work for some feedback on my initial essay draft, and he offered some really thorough feedback to help tighten it up.
• ordered a student loan refund, but I'm not eligible for anything back.
• I tried to use 111 on Monday, but it kept crashing out with a 500 error
• we've started using Shape Up at work, and this week is the start of our first cycle. my pitch was for an internal CLI tool, which I kicked off on Monday. I know the real pain will be in in the implementation, but it seems pretty easy so far
• went into work on Tuesday to make sure my colleague travelling in from out of London (finally) got his Secret Santa gift. also gave him a moving house card and a bunch of stickers from Congress
• headed into the office again on Wednesday, as I wanted to crash at my friend's after work. despite being incredibly distracted, I managed to implement OAuth 2.1 with PKCE. shockingly, it took much less time than I expected
• I finally did it! I'm not sure how, but I somehow managed to run out of data this month. luckily, it reset on Thursday
• found myself in London on Friday
  • went to lunch with Iris on Friday at Vivat Bacchus in Farringdon. I got a steak and chips, and had the Peppermint Crisp Tart for dessert. I absolutely loved it.
  • spent the afternoon in the office demoing the progress I'd made on auth and features in the CLI tool
  • went to Hugh's after for the first bad movie night of the year, where we watched Batman & Robin (1997) and half of Green Street Hooligans (2005). both were terrible, as expected. Hugh and Ellie made phenomenal hosts. it was good to see everyone again, as well
• Saturday was a beautiful day, a good day to be alive
  • started the day off with a gorgeous cinnamon roll stolen from Hugh's movie night and a cup of tea. managed to leave the house, saw the beautiful blue sky. the weather has gotten pleasantly mild quite quickly
  • went to a friend's leaving do at Merkamo, a vegan place near Whitechapel. she's heading to the US for a bit, for startup stuff.
    • arrived a whole hour early, so went shoe shopping to replace my hiking boots.
    • eventually, 12 people showed up. I had some samosas and Ethiopian coffee, which both were really good. had to leave early for a dinner date in Soho, sadly, but the rest of the night seemed like it went well. apparently I missed karaoke 😔
    • post-date, headed into the office to make a cup of tea. it was pretty late, but I just needed a break from all the light and noise
• slow Sunday, spent most of it in bed. after I hit publish, I'm going to go back to reviewing CfPs for codebar Festival
• I somehow found the energy to make my way into the office four times last week. no wonder I'm shattered