Spotted this small little switch/box, on the side of the Metra train that arrives across from our platform each morning. There’s a predictable cadence to the trains that show up before ours (an express whooshes by, the South Shore stops, and this guy pulls up across the way).
“A system that’s both complex and tightly coupled is dangerous. The complexity means there will occasionally be surprises. The tight coupling means that there will be no time to deal with the surprises.”
I’ve been pretty slow this week. I’ve definitely had busier weeks, but my ability to do more work at the end of the day (after arriving home from work) has been really, really low. Tonight, I got home to find Liz had already suited up and had started to haul down things we need for some upcoming drywall work.
Liz got some solar-powered Christmas lights over the weekend, and set up the front porch with them. It’s a pretty great approach, though we’ve had several overcast days… so I’m not sure how much light these, er, lights are actually getting.
Towards the end of the night, we talked about ceiling drywall installation. Bob mentioned working to verify that a corner is a true 90, before proceeding… and needing to adjust the initial piece, if the angles are off.
I bought my first car back in 2007, and it’s served us well since that time. For a good 10+ years, never had any problems… but the last two years, we’ve started to see more and more issues crop up.
Post-dinner, we played a few rounds of Secret Hitler, which Katie had brought over. Last year, we played Ticket to Ride, and this year we brought over Azul.
“The Last of Us” is well known for its compelling story, and the intro to the game still stands out to this day. Learning more of the details from the shooting process is great, but watching North’s reaction is really spectacular. I haven’t gotten through this whole video yet, but I was surprised to find myself captivated for more than 25 minutes.
“Outside the house the wind is howling
and the trees are creaking horribly.”
Today, as I was walking through, I spotted some of the in-progress decorations and holiday prep. The sight of this enormous wreath, leaning on a small scissor lift, was a humorous juxtaposition of the seasonal and the mechanical.
Honestly, most of day was just setup. Getting ESLint and Prettier up and running took a lot longer than it probably should have. I should probably set up TypeScript but part of me just wants to go go go.
Wasn’t really feeling all that motivated today, but ended up pulling myself out of bed late morning and suiting up. I wanted to get a bit of progress on the first floor, and had in mind to clean up a few ceiling areas downstairs.
“There were different versions, depending on whom you spoke to. Some people said the Oudh family had been there since the British had annexed their kingdom, in 1856, and that the forest had grown up around the palace, engulfing it. Some said they were a family of jinns, the supernatural beings of Arabian folklore.”
Last night, right before I was heading to bed, I happened to see this on Twitter. Imagine my surprise when someone mentioned they had read an old poem of mine – and for a high school class, no less!
Unless you’re familiar with the piece, the video probably just seems like a lot of gibberish. And I guess it is, mostly. But I like trying to listen for the overlap, and like imagining the robotic voices are actually performing for us.