weeknotes for w/c 16/12/24

i've taken this past week of unemployment to re-evaluate what i want in life and in a career. i've always enjoyed writing software because i've been good at it, and so changing to another career seems terrifying. that being said, i've seen career changes into tech... so why not the opposite, and move out of tech? it might provide a well-needed reset, at least in the short term.

without any further ado, here's this week's notes! consider it a Christmas present from me to you. 😄

• i have a lot of energy after leaving Monzo. i'm looking forward to putting a lot of it towards creative endeavours. 🎨
  • have a few projects i'm cooking on, so i'm thinking of allocating a day of the week to each so i have more structure and don't get burnt out
  • i'm excited about all of them, but i have a personal rule about sharing things too widely before they're ready to go. i adhere to it rather strictly so what i put out there is well-polished and it makes things less embarrassing when they fail to get off the ground.
• after two attempted redeliveries, i finally got my repaired headphones back on Tuesday! according to the paperwork which came with it, they replaced the proximity sensor and the ear pads. hopefully, they'll last for another three years. 🎧
• went to the pub on Tuesday evening to meet with codebar friends, which was really good. 🍻
• went to the dentist again. teeth are good, but told to floss more. 🦷
• been doing quite a bit of cooking this week! 🧑‍🍳
  • butchered the chicken i got last week, and stuck it in the freezer
  • used the bones and some veg in the fridge to make my own stock. then cooked a risotto on Friday night. tossed in some pointed sweet peppers, caramelised onions and mushrooms. it was delicious, but i think the caramelised onion was a little too sweet and rich for the dish
  • stumbled across bon appétit's Basically Guide to Better Baking. as i've been on a bit of a baking streak recently, it would be nice to improve my skills
• went to Shoreditch on Sunday. had a mocha at Float and then bought Camgirl, by Isa Mazzei at The Common Press! it looks interesting, so I'm excited to give it a read 📖
• bought some soaps and shampoos from the Body Shop. glad i can smell nice now! 🫧
• i've been tempted to upgrade from Plane's OSS offering to the free version of the Commercial edition. however, the features I want likely aren't worth tying myself into a commercial version of a product for (namely, OIDC login and a mobile app). 🛫
  • on that note, i wonder if there's a layer for adding OIDC to password-only apps
  • the next thing to add to my homelab (apart from backups) is a pass-through Docker registry which stores all the images i use. a company i worked at worked at used one, and i think it's a pretty cool concept just in case something goes wrong with the upstream repositories!
• planning to track all my personal things in my personal wiki from now on. to maintain some semblance of work-life balance, i'll continue to use Living Spec for my Voxa projects 📊
• while grinding out some work, Apple Music served up several songs that can only be described as sugary hyper-pop goodness. suffice it to say, I quite enjoyed it 🎧
• knocked out a few miscellaneous chores, too! 🛁
  • got some keys cut, and put them on keyrings. i spent ~25 minutes organising one set of keys in the "right" order, so i can more efficiently use them
  • booked tickets to join a friend for Christmas in Bath
  • washed some clothes
• started drafting a content schedule for this blog for 2025 ✏️
  • considered squeaking out one more substantive blog post before the end of the year, but i don't think it'd be as high-quality as i'd like
  • sporadic posting makes my blog look and feel ugly, so consistency would be nice
  • i'd like to reduce the emphasis on weeknotes, possibly by designing a custom theme that filters them out. that could be my next project, perhaps!
  • i'm slowly realising that writing a good blog post is about telling a good story and taking the reader on a journey with you, instead of telling the truth. which makes me a little sad.