Week three, 2024

Exciting week: surgery for the dog, doctor for me, and dealing with tax agencies in two different countries! Spent a bit of time on Sunday in town, just decompressing.

Spent a bit of time digging in to customization options for my Steam Deck. I bought almost all the keyboard skins, and about half the startup videos with my points. Nice to finally have a use for them! The Steam Deck continues to wow me. I’m surprised by the length of time the battery runs as well. I’m not taxing it by any stretch, but I’ve still yet to see a low-power warning. Haven’t started The Outer Wilds yet. I’ve been grinding light points in Destiny 2 so I can come close to my nephew’s level. Unfortunately this has meant enduring the non-stop jumping puzzles in the Savathun storylines.

Finished the Girl with all the Gifts this week, and it was exactly as sad as I expected. Still highly recommend it. Moved on to Alice isn’t Dead, which from the little I remember of the podcast, seems to be an abbreviated retelling of the podcast series.

Discussion of “AirSpace” and genericness in interiors has come up again. The driver seemed to be this article in the Guardian by the person who first documented the phenomenon. The town in which I live has in part escaped this phenomenon by being reluctant to let go of the 90’s. But it still strikes home, and quite literally. The house in which I live was an AirBnB, and we bought the contents when we moved in. It very much fit this aesthetic. Still does in many ways.

Cooked a couple of great recipes this week: General Tso Chickpea Stirfry and Glowing Spiced Lentil Soup (pretty much just a dal).

I was chatting with another developer about making sure my CSS isn’t too dated (i.e. I’m not still writing it like I was ten years ago), and they mentioned the MDN CSS guides. I took a quick look, and they seem to be a nice overview. I’m going to spend a bit of time on them as a refresher. They may be a bit basic, but it never hurts to go back to the basics every so often.