weeknotes for w/c 30/12/24

the first update of 2025. i started writing this on time, but it's inevitably been delayed by some travelling to Edinburgh for a conference over this week! regardless, i had an eventful New Year's, and i'm looking forward to surviving (and thriving!) in 2025.

• got some good media going 🎧
  • listened to Portishead's debut album, Dummy. one track off it, Glory Box, has been in my library for some time. i greatly enjoyed the rest of the album
  • discovered and listened to New Blue Sun, a new flute ambient album by André 3000. the track titles are truly unhinged; i think my favourite is The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue with Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?
  • Read All Tomorrows by C. M. Kosemen. it's an intriguing alternate future book about humanity’s spread across the stars and its horrifying post-human evolution after we encounter a hostile race. unsettling, with beautiful illustrations. makes a fitting first book of the year
• had a lie in on Monday after a hectic Christmas week in Bath. definitely needed that
• New Year's and New Year's Eve was incredibly busy. i've had a kind-of mixed start to the year
  • met up with a friend at New Year's, and got some pho for lunch
  • had a homie come down from Cambridge to spend the time with me. went to small gathering at another friend's house for New Year's Eve and watched the fireworks on telly. it was lovely meeting new people, but it took us 5 1/2 hours to get home
• broke my bed by stubbing my toe and falling onto it. the central bar which supports the whole thing is now horribly twisted. i dread reaching out to IKEA to get parts
• had breakfast at my favourite cafe on New Year's Day, and then made delicious chicken fajitas the day after!
• fired off some job applications throughout the week, and secured an initial job interview on Thursday. it's a slow start as everyone slowly returns to work
• while running for the bus on Friday, my left ankle gave out and i took quite a tumble. my knee hurts a bit still 😔
• hit the ground running during this first week, despite it being really cold ❄️
  • started sleeting in London, but wasn’t cold enough for any of it to settle 
  • sent out an email to check for venues for an event i'm running in March
  • got some work done through Voxa, continuing with a client on a long-term project. i'm excited to issue my first invoice of the year
  • i'm due to go to Edinburgh for the Teaching Coding Across Disciplines Winter School next week, so i'll need to wrap up warm. i despise the cold with a passion
• conquered a handful of household tasks 💪
  • watered my plants. they look a little less miserable now
  • knocked out some washing up on New Year's Day
  • took the bins out
  • put several loads in the washing machine
    • because I’m unemployed, i can watch a whole cycle of the washing machine. yippee!
  • after several weeks without, i have finally replenished my supply of garlic. happy with that, because my cooking has been rather miserable without it.
• did some homelabbing 🔧
  • couldn't deploy any new compose services because Docker ran out of address pools for new networks. had to decrease the amount of space allocated to each network and restart a bunch of containers
• did a healthy amount of socialising, and took some care of myself
  • cooked for some friends in Tooting. i made a variant of spaghetti bolognese with curry powder, and they loved it. added some carrots too, so everyone got at least one of their five a day. i somehow also managed to burn off a few of my fingerprints, somehow?
  • played Secret Hitler and surprisingly won a couple of rounds. i admittedly expected it to be boring with only five people, but it was fun!
  • met a Goldendoodle named Sam and a Cocker Spaniel named Teddy on the top deck of a bus! they were on holiday, and were very cute.
• i need to get my favourite backpack repaired! it's going to be a pain to find somewhere.
• bought some cheap spiral notebooks from Lidl, and i'm deeply regretting my purchase already. spiral bound notebooks are an absolute pain, and the small A6 pages can barely contain a single one of my thoughts. oh, and it's graphed, not lined. who needs A6 graph paper?!
• got some motivation back after leaving Monzo. i feel less tired, the muscle twitching in my left tricep has stopped and the knot in my back has mostly gone. i now have enough energy to spite the haters.
• went to a Hope Not Hate hackathon on Sunday, and built a tool to summarise debate contributions and speeches made in the House of Commons. it worked really well.