weeknotes for w/c 27/01/25

this is one week late! hello! it's likely nobody will read this, because I'm not sending out an email update but... well, it's nice to keep up my little rituals.

• I'm definitely having la cuesta de enero, or "the uphill January". everything feels incredibly shitty, but I hope it'll pick up in February
• the job hunt continues! had a lot of interviews, but not much progress. ironically, i think I'm starting to burn out from lack of a job 
  • it's frustrating because everything I'd like to achieve in life revolves around having a stable income from employment.
  • searching for a job is truly a full-time job
• I want to get my Spanish learning back on track. that'll be the first order of business as soon as I am engaged in gainful employment
• went to pub on Wednesday evening with some people from Ripjar, it was really fun to see everyone again
• in terms of music, I've discovered that good basslines make me happy. Euphoric Sad Songs is an amazing album that's full of them. it's funky, groovy and downright brilliant. in my mind, the best songs on it are Natalie Don’t, and Love Of Your Life are good
• I'm in Belgium for FOSDEM, and it's my first international trip of the year. my goals are to meet new people and to find a new OSS project to contribute to. this also filters into my goal to make time to things I don't know that much about, and I'd say it was a massive success
  • I will say, I imagined higher ceilings and more light in the University. it was incredibly cramped, but that's probably because there were a few thousand people milling about
  • i landed in Brussels Airport on the Friday, did a fringe event with Upcloud and then had drinks with a few people
  • went to The Psychology Behind Communities: Why Do We Really Contribute?, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon — Open Source Community Edition, Let's talk about anti-trust!, Open Source Governance for Software Engineers and Note-Worthy Collaboration: Co-developing a Note-Taking Application
• group dynamics factor heavily into organising meet-ups and open source projects, people contribute to communities for a sense of belonging and to learn new skills
• not everything is an antitrust problem. antitrust law is used to protect free markets, and not necessarily the consumer directly. the thinking is that free markets are themselves inherently advantageous to the consumer, and that breaking up monopolies would have the indirect effect of consumer protection
• proprietary hardware + software monopoly (such as proprietary Nvidia drivers for their chips) versus security will be a concern in the coming years
• I seriously need to set up IRC
• met a bunch of cool people, and now the challenge is to keep in touch!
• I also want to learn to do a Rubik’s cube
• I'm penning a blog post about the whole experience!