Saw the king’s official transport going through the City of London again. There’s nothing too interesting for me to say about it but it felt noteworthy at the time. Some tourists might’ve been impressed, but living here I’ve lost that magic.
This week in numbers:
🕸️ Domains purchased: 2
📞 Phone-calls: 22
🍲 Soup consumed: 2.2L
Had a few conversations this week which I really enjoyed. I mixed a few different tools/techniques which let me keep them short and structured: Think coaching blended with the 5-whys, fuelled by active note-taking.
On my backburner is the general problem of, “How to orchestrate/instrument R?” The closest I’ve come is the openmetrics library, but what I really want is to see where a pipeline might be failing.
If you’re ever wondering if you should sort your data client-side or server-side, the answer is: both! A comparison sort (A>B, or: Array.sort((a,b) => (b-a))) has linear complexity so is cheap to run client-side if data is already sorted, and it’s a good defence mechanism in case it isn't. But server-side is always cheaper for users: If your sorting rules are complex then add a numeric points-based score server-side, maybe even in your data model. You’re welcome.
Giving feedback to people who don’t have to listen is hard and is something I have definitely not mastered. Any tips & tricks are welcome, reader.
Played chess with some people from The Guardian. One of the things about working at a newspaper is that many problems are shared and it’s always nice to hear how others are doing. I didn’t win a single game. :(
Went to Snappy Snaps for the first time ever, for some passport photos. It took seconds. After I left I realised I’d made a mistake with the order, and seconds after going in they made it right by reprinting. Genuinely a delight. For those thinking that the robots got us beat: I’ve never thanked a photo booth before - this was great and only a hair more expensive.
Turns out that I really like The Bolter. It’s the first City of London pub which consistently does good pours, has a selection of drinks that I actually enjoy and is reasonably priced. Went last week for the first time, this week for the second.
My arms have been bruised all week spurring much conversation. Nearly healed now. Had another blood test this weekend (all clear) - this time without bruising.
Picked up Carrion after seeing it mentioned on social media, and beat it over the weekend: Fun little Metroidvania game where you play as an amorphous cosmic horror and navigate a lab to (like in nearly every other metroidvania game) escape. Solid 3.5/5, and the DLC was a great warmdown.
And finally watched The Batman (2022) which honestly felt slow and I struggled to stay interested. I wonder if the Batman universe is forever doomed by directors trying to make films as dark and edgy as Christopher Nolan? This tried too hard. I gave it 2.5. The internet disagrees.
