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index.md (12345B)

---

 ---
 title: "Dispatch #35 (January 2026)"
 date: 2026-01-08T00:27:32-05:00
 draft: false
 tags:
 - dispatch
 references:
 - title: "OpenSCAD Is Kinda Neat – nuxx.net"
   url: https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/20/openscad-is-kinda-neat/
   date: 2026-01-07T14:53:56Z
   file: nuxx-net-xnrgb7.txt
 - title: "December 2025 - Tim Hårek"
   url: https://timharek.no/blog/2025-december-recently/
   date: 2026-01-07T14:55:06Z
   file: timharek-no-dea3rz.txt
 - title: "Home is where my stuff is | Ruslan Osipov"
   url: https://rosipov.com/blog/home-is-where-my-stuff-is/
   date: 2026-01-06T05:32:49Z
   file: rosipov-com-qbdcgh.txt
 - title: "Home is where my stuff is — Lars-Christian's website"
   url: https://lars-christian.com/notes/2025-12-29-home-is-where-my-stuff-is/
   date: 2026-01-08T05:05:03Z
   file: lars-christian-com-hrkpv2.txt
 - title: "Aspiration"
   url: https://lmno.lol/puddingtime/aspiration
   date: 2025-09-14T05:24:26Z
   file: lmno-lol-f6bq3n.txt
 - title: "Food Comas and Some Bests • Buttondown"
   url: https://buttondown.com/nathanlong/archive/food-comas-and-some-bests/
   date: 2026-01-06T18:39:37Z
   file: buttondown-com-lxmsti.txt
 - title: "3 books with Samuel Arbesman (Interconnected)"
   url: https://interconnected.org/home/2025/11/14/arbesman
   date: 2026-01-06T18:40:18Z
   file: interconnected-org-9bc7pq.txt
 - title: "2025 Year in Review - macwright.com"
   url: https://macwright.com/2025/12/07/year-in-review
   date: 2025-12-18T15:21:17Z
   file: macwright-com-5fr93r.txt
 - title: "My 2026 Q1 Planning and Moving to a New Planner – Writing at Large"
   url: https://writingatlarge.com/2026/01/03/my-2026-q1-planning-and-moving-to-a-new-planner/
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:42Z
   file: writingatlarge-com-3xaqup.txt
 - title: "Thin Desires Are Eating Your Life"
   url: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/thin-desires-are-eating-your-life/
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:47Z
   file: www-joanwestenberg-com-4eftax.txt
 - title: "Thin Desires Are Eating Your Life. “A thick desire is one th..."
   url: https://kottke.org/25/12/0048079-thin-desires-are-eating-y
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:48Z
   file: kottke-org-hwapp6.txt
 - title: "A blog is a biography | Dries Buytaert"
   url: https://dri.es/a-blog-is-a-biography
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:50Z
   file: dri-es-enwpkq.txt
 - title: "Lars-Christian Simonsen – Manu"
   url: https://manuelmoreale.com/interview/lars-christian-simonsen
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:52Z
   file: manuelmoreale-com-zl2mwc.txt
 - title: "This life gives you nothing - Blackbird Spyplane"
   url: https://www.blackbirdspyplane.com/p/this-life-gives-you-nothing
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:58Z
   file: www-blackbirdspyplane-com-52g1uj.txt
 - title: "On reading Proust vs experiencing the world intermediated by..."
   url: https://kottke.org/25/12/0048058-on-reading-proust-vs-expe
   date: 2026-01-07T19:49:59Z
   file: kottke-org-l0focf.txt
 ---
 
 Happy new year! Big month. My girl turned four, which is somehow both shockingly old and young. Sometimes I look at her and think, I can't believe you're not still two. Other times she says things and I think, I can't believe you're not, like, twelve. We threw her a party at [Hyper Kidz][1], then my folks took her to Asheville for a few days.
 
 [1]: https://durham.hyperkidzplay.com/
 
 <!--more-->
 
 {{<dither IMG_2327.jpeg "782x600">}}A child with curly blond hair, wearing a pink dress over a magenta shirt, sits beneath balloons at a bright pink table with a slice of pizza on a paper plate.{{</dither>}}
 {{<dither IMG_3491.jpeg "782x600">}}Two adults and a child stand beside a large crouching wooden sculpture with an upside-down green wheeled bin covering its head and two holes for eyes, outdoors among trees.{{</dither>}}
 
 We spent Christmas in Greensboro with Claire's family. In addition to all the good family time, the highlight was [Winter Wonderlights][2] at the Greensboro Science Center (and so many presents). Then we spent a few days down at Lake Norman with Claire's grandmother. We went to a [Gabby's Dollhouse][3] interactive experience, which is pretty big in our house these days.
 
 [2]: https://www.greensboroscience.org/winterwonderlights/
 [3]: https://camp.com/gabbys-dollhouse-x-camp-charlotte
 
 {{<dither IMG_9572.jpeg "782x600">}}A child with curly blond hair holds a pink toy pony, mouth open as white flakes fall around them. Colorful lights and a large reflective circular sculpture stand in the background at night.{{</dither>}}
 {{<dither IMG_9574.jpeg "782x600">}}A young child with a pink pacifier holds a toy strawberry at a play kitchen counter with colorful bowls, toy fruit, an egg carton, and a large blue mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.{{</dither>}}
 
 ### Music
 
 Here's a track I made in December, called "Signal Drift":
 
 <audio controls src="/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/Signal Drift.mp3"></audio>
 
 I'm pretty happy with the last few things I've recorded. I can hear a real progression from the stuff I was making a year ago. Getting comfortable in Ableton has been a big boost, having discrete creation and refinement phases.
 
 I also made this little medley for a company event:
 
 <audio controls src="/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/My Favorite Kings.mp3"></audio>
 
 I tracked everything out on my synths, but then, rather than recording the audio, I just sent the MIDI data into Ableton and played it through this [Magical 8bit Plug][4] which really nails the Nintendo sound from my childhood.
 
 [4]: https://ymck.net/app/magical-8bit-plug-en
 
 I have a bass guitar I'm borrowing from my father-in-law, but I've never done much with it. I picked up a cheap [bass multi-effect pedal][5] so I can at least get some decent sounds out of it. I hope to incorporate it into my music -- there's a level of subtlety and expression that's hard to replicate with synths. It's a whole new thing, though, and whatever guitar skills I have (i.e. strumming bar chords) don't really transfer.
 
 [5]: https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/multi-effects/bass-effects/b1-four-b1x-four/
 
 ### 3D Printing
 
 My lovely wife got me a [Bambu Lab P1S][6] 3D printer for Christmas, and it's basically been running non-stop since I got it set up. This thing is amazing! It's whirring away making a [pink fox][7] as I type this.
 
 [6]: https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/p1s?id=583855874739507208
 [7]: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1117352-articulated-fox-by-pinkywings
 
 {{<dither IMG_2849.jpeg "782x600">}}A magenta articulated dragon, a magenta unicorn, and a red toy Jeep sit on a light-colored table, with a plastic storage bin and floral-patterned box behind them.{{</dither>}}
 {{<dither IMG_9648.jpeg "782x600">}}Two bright pink 3D-printed dinosaur figures with white horns and spikes and black eyes sit on a gridded cutting mat.{{</dither>}}
 
 I've started dabbling a bit with [Blender][8] to design and print custom stuff. Here's my first project -- the, ahem, "crap catcher" -- designed to keep Claire's fancy kitchen knives free of parrot detritus:
 
 [8]: https://www.blender.org/
 
 {{<dither crap-catcher.jpg "782x600">}}3D modeling viewport showing a long rectangular tray with a tall back panel, low front and side walls, and three rectangular strips along the inside back, rendered with translucent gray surfaces and black edges.{{</dither>}}
 {{<dither IMG_9650.jpeg "782x600">}}An empty red shelf mounted on the side of a gray refrigerator above a magnetic strip holding knives, kitchen scissors, and a honing rod.{{</dither>}}
 
 Print-on-demand toys are awesome, but there is something really cool about watching a thing you designed enter the real world, layer by layer. I'm keen to try out [OpenSCAD][9] ([via][10]), which lets you design models with code instead of visually.
 
 [9]: https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/20/openscad-is-kinda-neat/
 [10]: https://timharek.no/blog/2025-december-recently/
 
 ### Misc.
 
 I found [this post][11] ([via][12]), "Home is where my stuff is," deeply resonant:
 
 > Here’s what I’ve realized: every object I own is a fossil. A little sediment left by a past version of myself.
 
 > This is why decluttering is so hard. It’s not really about tidiness. It’s about deciding which past selves get to stay.
 
 Pairs nicely with [another one of my favorites from 2025][13].
 
 [11]: https://rosipov.com/blog/home-is-where-my-stuff-is/
 [12]: https://lars-christian.com/notes/2025-12-29-home-is-where-my-stuff-is/
 [13]: https://lmno.lol/puddingtime/aspiration
 
 I gave a talk at work about my use of ChatGPT Codex over the last six months. The big takeaways:
 
 * **These tools don’t replace thinking** (and in fact reward good & clear thinking)
 * **Good software development practices still apply** (and you need to be able to describe them rather than just having an intuitive sense)
 * **Abundance mindset over zero-sum** (these tools aren't taking work from software developers, they're letting us do more)
 
 Finally, I'd like to take health and exercise a bit more seriously in 2026, and plan to do a separate blog series about it. Look out for that in the next week or so.
 
 That's all for now. I hope 2026 treats you well, from my adorable family to yours.
 
 {{<dither IMG_9467.jpeg "782x600">}}Two young children sit together at the top of a playground slide, one smiling and the other leaning close with their tongue out.{{</dither>}}
 {{<dither IMG_2575.jpeg "782x600">}}A smiling man in glasses and a gray robe holds a toddler while carrying an older child on his back, standing beside outdoor steps surrounded by fallen leaves.{{</dither>}}
 
 ### This Month
 
 * Adventure: up to DC for a friend's baby shower and some family time
 * Project: custom shelving unit for our kitchen
 * Skill: 3D modeling; slappin' the bass
 
 ### Reading & Listening
 
 * Fiction: [_The Will of the Many_][14], James Islington ([via][15])
 * Non-fiction: [_The Magic of Code_][16], Samuel Arbesman  ([via][17])
 * Music: [_Septet_][18], John Carroll Kirby ([via][19], though one track is on my [Lisbon playlist][20])
 
 [14]: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Will-of-the-Many/James-Islington/Hierarchy/9781982141189
 [15]: https://buttondown.com/nathanlong/archive/food-comas-and-some-bests/
 [16]: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/samuel-arbesman/the-magic-of-code/9781541704480/
 [17]: https://interconnected.org/home/2025/11/14/arbesman
 [18]: https://johncarrollkirby.bandcamp.com/album/septet
 [19]:  https://macwright.com/2025/12/07/year-in-review
 [20]: /journal/dispatch-15-may-2024/#fn:1
 
 ### Links
 
 * [My 2026 Q1 Planning and Moving to a New Planner – Writing at Large][21]
 
   > That’s it. There are no stickers in my planner, no highlighters, illustrations and such. It’s a practical tool for me. I won’t photograph it for the blog or social media because it’s so personal, and that’s its job – to work for me, not to generate content or likes. It isn’t pretty, but boy is it functional. I reference it at least one or two time a day every day. From it stems my daily to-do list, my weekly review, my long and short term plans. It’s an investment that’s paid dividends over the years, and from what I can tell my new format promises to pay me back even more.
 
 * [Thin Desires Are Eating Your Life][22] ([via][23])
 
   > The business model of most consumer technology is to identify some thick desire, find the part of it that produces a neurological reward, and then deliver that reward without the rest of the package.
 
 * [A blog is a biography | Dries Buytaert][24] ([via][25])
 
   > If that idea feels compelling, this might be a good time to start a blog or a website. Not to build a large audience, but just to leave a trail. Future you may be grateful you began.
 
 * [This life gives you nothing - Blackbird Spyplane][26] ([via][27])
 
   > When we do this, we don’t just find ourselves with more time on our hands, but with more life on our hands, too. Because we set things back in motion. The world remains the same, but the way we see it changes.
 
 [21]: https://writingatlarge.com/2026/01/03/my-2026-q1-planning-and-moving-to-a-new-planner/
 [22]: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/thin-desires-are-eating-your-life/
 [23]: https://kottke.org/25/12/0048079-thin-desires-are-eating-y
 [24]: https://dri.es/a-blog-is-a-biography
 [25]: https://manuelmoreale.com/interview/lars-christian-simonsen
 [26]: https://www.blackbirdspyplane.com/p/this-life-gives-you-nothing
 [27]: https://kottke.org/25/12/0048058-on-reading-proust-vs-expe