weeknotes for w/c 17/02/25

started the new job, and this has been my first full week there. it's a rather small team, but it's been lovely. I'm excited to get stuck in, and pursue some work in technical excellence.

• launched the codebar Festival Fringe event page last Sunday, promoting it on LinkedIn. we even got a shoutout from in random LinkedIn post which aggregates diversity events.
  • I'm in two minds about needing to figure out a better promotional strategy. I do want it to be successful, but I don't want it to become too large. I think it's going to be a good time, even if it is a little cozy.
• headed into the office in Slough on Tuesday. my team is entirely distributed across the UK and Europe, so it's not much different from Monzo. that being said, it was very fun meeting the rest of the company in person.
  • they have a fabrication room and a wet room, both of which I'm excited to get inducted into at some point! I need to get that arranged.
  • it's good to be in a less high-pressure environment where I have room to fail. I feel like I'm getting on incredibly well with my colleagues, as well.
  • while at the office, I managed to see the motion of the stars across the sky through an incredibly high-powered telescope. that's equal parts terrifying and beautiful. in other news, I'm now considering astrophotgraphy as another expensive hobby.
  • currently working on building out tooling to support the developer experience, including preview environments for web projects. I should do a technical write-up once I'm done
• I'm now a principal engineer at the new job, which is pretty overwhelming. I'm excited to place an emphasis on defining standards, ensuring technical excellence, and supporting and elevating the people I work with.
  • Ryan Lee recommended a handful of resources for helping me do my job well. been digging into StaffEng over the past week.
  • managed to jot down some thoughts on why staging branches aren't the best approach for teams which want to build and preserve velocity. in my mind, trunk-based development is more versatile and makes shipping changes faster and safer. however, it requires a little more custom tooling than Gitflow
  • been thinking about how I fit into organisations and the role I want in my career. It would be nice to go ‘founder mode’ for a while, and float from project to project helping people out and staying stimulated. That being said, it would be nice to have some success that’s wholly my own, and not a share of someone else’s.
  • started writing down some thoughts about the new job. I might pen a new blog post once I pass probation.
  • recruiters are reaching out to me in droves, now that I've secured a new role. I haven't even announced it on LinkedIn yet.
• I ordered some loo roll, which arrived on Tuesday. however, I forgot I already have loo roll. that being said, I won't need any for the next few months, given I ordered 24 500-sheet rolls.
• signed up for AWS Summit London, which is always a good time! stuck it on my site's events page, which lists where I'll be this year! (shameless plug, I know)
• managed to go to the GP this week
  • my nose has been stuffy and hard to breathe through over the past few weeks, so I went to the doctor and got some nasal spray. I read up on it, and it's the same class of medication used as the steroid in my combination inhaler. hopefully I'll be able to breathe again.
  • managed to switch from an aerosol inhaler to a dry powder inhaler because it's better for the environment. I'm doing my part to slow our march towards ecological collapse!
• went to London Web Standards last Wednesday with Willow and Andrew.
  • heard a talk about Invoker Commands, providing JavaScript-free ways to build dialogue boxes, popovers and other interactive user interface elements. what an exciting time to be alive!
  • also learnt about the nature of the early web, as well as the Web Monetisation standard
  • was lovely to pop to the pub after
• spent my weekend being very busy and social
  • spent a lot of Saturday tending to chores
    • found a way to finish off the mulled wine from Christmas
    • cleaned my fridge from top to bottom, and disposed of some of the more questionable contents. found some old jam I made. I should really get back into that.
    • did a big shop from Lidl
    • went to a friend's taco night on Saturday, and met a bunch of new people there! it was very fun
  • spent Sunday in central London
    • went to the National Gallery on Saturday, and spent about three hours looking at impressionist, medieval and renaissance art. it was lovely, especially as one of the friends I went with was knowledgeable about art and taught me a lot
    • after three hours at the Gallery, ran a writer’s huddle performing for some friends on March 8th
    • felt somewhat run-down on Sunday, given I didn’t stop to take a break this whole week.
• in homelab news, my network connection between devices has been temperamental and intermittent (according to my status monitoring). I should dig into it, as I keep getting false alerts about downtime.
• a friend got me a mug warmer for Christmas and I've only just unboxed it. it appears to be effective at keeping tea warm, while simultaneously being a very snazzy fire hazard
• I’ve become a lot less empathetic to others as of late, probably because a lot of my emotional energy has been preoccupied by the job search. regardless of the cause, I don’t like it
  • feel like I’ve been floating through life without necessarily engaging with it, and I’d like to put some effort into fixing that
  • I believe the burden and the frustration of the job search and the preoccupation with just getting something to pay the bills has just made me less curious about the world and the people in it, which makes me uncomfortable.
  • being aware about it means I can address it, at least.
• have come to see these weeknotes as what they are: namely, some time for reflection and grounding. this is especially true after this rather hectic week. if you do take the time to read these, thank you.