Weeknote #57 (20251019-20251025)

meta

Funemployment week 2 …go!

I feel like, around Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, I was finally de-stressed/relaxed enough (not that $JOB[-1] was particularly stressful…) that I could kinda start to think about making putting my head down and doing some work on a side-project — just in time for it to be time for me to go back to work…

did

• We had a couple nice weather days near the start of the week, which I used as a chance to move (almost) everything out of the garage into the driveway, give the garage a pretty good cleaning (although, really said cleaning needs to involve a pressure washer, and I didn’t go quite that far), and then moved everything back in, in an improved configuration
• I also busted out the flat hoe and scraped up most of the moss from the one section of driveway where it accumulates, and off the community mailbox pedestal as well — that was pretty satisfying
• With the garage sorted, it was trivial to put away the deck furniture and the grilling stuff — the grill will get dragged back out a time or two, I expect, but the rainy season is upon us and it’s not going to be getting used multiple times a week like it is in summer
• I also cleaned off the firepit cover (which had gotten muddy and disgusting) and covered it up for the season too. Look at me, responsible homeowner guy! (I guess all this outdoor stuff was probably a better use of my couple de-stressed days than working on some software side-project I wouldn’t actually finish!)
• In between all that outside stuff, I also managed to put several hours into Ball x Pit, which is somehow exactly tuned to punch all of my brain buttons
• Towards the end of the week, we had (for these parts, anyway) a fairly significant weather system move through — lots of wind, some actual thunder (if you haven’t lived here, I cannot over-emphasize how unusual this is!), a few power outages due to downed tree limbs, heavier than usual rains, etc. I was kinda already leaning in this direction, but this was sufficient to fully snap me fully into hygge season — bring on the soups, stews, and general coziness!

read

• Kind Engineering: How To Engineer Kindness — no pull quote from this one, because it’s all very, very good. (via rjbs)

• Reckoning

  This is a four-part series detailing ways that the current framework-oriented approach almost everybody takes to front end web development is failing, with a particular focus on public assistance sites being accessed from lower-end mobile devices. It’s just over a year old, and still completely relevant; I recommend reading the whole thing (the link above is to the first part), particularly if you’re in a senior or leadership position with a group building web apps. This pull quote is from a footnote from the final part, but really, the whole thing is great.

  Silver bullets aren’t possible at the technical level, but culturally, giving a toss is always the secret ingredient.

• Accepting Work

  TONS of good stuff in this one

  Frequent delivery of working software is a survival tactic for deadlines.

  …

  The fastest way to get projects done is to have an aligned team take on chunks at their own pace, without doing any planning other than technical planning. Nobody likes hearing this, but it’s a consequence of the overhead of estimating and bookkeeping.

watched

• TheWife and I are still grinding Criminal Minds, we’re into S7
• It’s MLS playoff season — we watched the Timbers (somewhat unexpectedly!) win the play-in game they bumbled their way into, so we’ve got at least a couple more games left before they’re done
• Really enjoyed “I think I saw you on my run today, volume II”

cooked

• Wednesday: roast chicken, side salad
• Thursday: papas con chorizo
• Friday: chili colorado

photo

Speaking of hygge — we tried a new-ish, fancy Mexican place for the second time (after an underwhelming visit not long after they originally opened), and they had a posole special on. It was extremely posole weather, and I was pretty satisfied with this choice. Place earned a third shot, at least.

looking forward to

The new gig starts Monday! I updated LinkedIn, and I’ll update the /now page soon, but I expect there’s going to be a lot less work-related content here and on other social media …so it goes.