index.md (10432B)
1 --- 2 title: "Dispatch #39 (May 2026)" 3 date: 2026-05-12T01:32:16-04:00 4 draft: false 5 tags: 6 - dispatch 7 references: 8 - title: "Print-in-place - Beginners guide" 9 url: https://www.thingiverse.com/blog?p=print-in-place-beginners-guide 10 date: 2026-05-12T04:46:31Z 11 file: www-thingiverse-com-v7ip1b.txt 12 - title: "3D Print Your Way Out of Chaos With Gridfinity Modular Storage Systems: All You Need to Know | All3DP" 13 url: https://all3dp.com/2/gridfinity-simply-explained/ 14 date: 2026-04-08T05:22:41Z 15 file: all3dp-com-1skmik.txt 16 - title: "Optimism is not a personality flaw" 17 url: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/optimism-is-not-a-personality-flaw/ 18 date: 2026-05-12T05:27:58Z 19 file: www-joanwestenberg-com-w65sdh.txt 20 - title: "Manton Reece - Optimism by default" 21 url: https://www.manton.org/2026/04/12/optimism-by-default.html 22 date: 2026-05-12T05:26:33Z 23 file: www-manton-org-etlydh.txt 24 - title: "Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I’d like" 25 url: https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/6/vibe-coding-and-agentic-engineering/#atom-everything 26 date: 2026-05-12T05:26:37Z 27 file: simonwillison-net-0ovi9d.txt 28 - title: "Open Source Gave Me Everything Until I Had Nothing Left to Give - Kenneth Reitz" 29 url: https://kennethreitz.org/essays/2026-03-18-open_source_gave_me_everything_until_i_had_nothing_left_to_give 30 date: 2026-05-12T05:26:42Z 31 file: kennethreitz-org-ywzt9y.txt 32 - title: "Favourites of March 2026 | Brain Baking" 33 url: https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/05/april-2026/ 34 date: 2026-05-12T05:28:40Z 35 file: brainbaking-com-vh1pf8.txt 36 --- 37 38 Man, what a month. Rich with the stuff of life. THICK. High highs (Nev's first ballet recital, an incredible trip to Asheville), low lows (the death of our next door neighbor Joel, a major health scare -- don't worry, everyone's alright). Impossible to capture the feeling of it as I sit here, and frankly it feels silly to document all the dumb stuff I get into alongside the heavy shit, but I'm committed to this project. Let's go. 39 40 <!--more--> 41 42 We headed down to Lake Norman for Easter weekend. Good to get some time with our little nephew Sully, who's just a few months younger than Nico. I ran the Tar Heel 10 Miler ([result][1], [certificate][2]), which went okay. Happy enough with my overall time at sub-9 minutes/mile, but I thought I might do a little better until I hit the final climb. 43 44 {{<dither IMG_4118.jpeg "782x600">}}Smiles and life jackets on the lake.{{</dither>}} 45 {{<dither IMG_4132.jpeg "782x600">}}A gleeful first mate on the water.{{</dither>}} 46 47 {{<dither IMG_0185.jpeg "782x600">}}Cheering from the cheap seats.{{</dither>}} 48 {{<dither IMG_4482.jpeg "782x600">}}A mid-race high-five on Franklin Street.{{</dither>}} 49 50 Between the race and an ill-fated outing to see the [Savannah Bananas][3], we spent a good bit of time in Chapel Hill, where Claire went to school. Neat for her to be able to show the kids around. I sort of take for granted that we live where I went to college (though the main campus is rather separate and not somewhere we ever go). 51 52 [1]: /journal/dispatch-39-may-2026/2026_10_miler_result.png 53 [2]: /journal/dispatch-39-may-2026/2026_10_miler_certificate.pdf 54 [3]: https://thesavannahbananas.com/ 55 56 ### Asheville 57 58 At the end of the month, we headed to Asheville for our company's annual gathering, which was awesome. We took over [The Restoration][4] hotel right in the heart of the city. I did a live performance of my song [Asperitas][5], which was well-received and something I've never done before. And we unveiled the project we built as part of the [hackathon in February][6], which went over so well it gets its own section below. 59 60 [4]: https://therestorationhotel.com/asheville-nc-restoration-hotel/ 61 [5]: /music/#asperitas 62 [6]: /journal/dispatch-37-march-2026/#pointless-palooza 63 64 After the rest of the company departed, my parents (bless them) brought the kids out, and we got to take them around the city for a few days. Highlights included the [Asheville Museum of Science][7], [WNC Nature Center][8], and [Highland Brewing][9]. 65 66 [7]: https://ashevillescience.org/ 67 [8]: https://wildwnc.org/ 68 [9]: https://highlandbrewing.com/ 69 70 {{<dither IMG_0261.jpeg "782x600">}}Story time on the couch.{{</dither>}} 71 {{<dither IMG_0271.jpeg "782x600">}}Riding high in downtown Asheville.{{</dither>}} 72 73 ### Mystery Project 74 75 Right, so in February, I pitched this concept of a 3D-printed name tag tied to a digital product that would encourage people to connect in real life. I worked with a team to build a prototype, but the mechanics still needed fleshing out and the name tag/keychain thing needed refinement. In the subsequent months, my coworker [Steven][10] continued iterating on the keychain, eventually getting to a slick design featuring a [print-in-place][11] hinge and embedded magnets. 76 77 [10]: https://www.viget.com/about/team/shascher 78 [11]: https://www.thingiverse.com/blog?p=print-in-place-beginners-guide 79 80 About a week before the event, I decided to get serious about the digital updates. I worked with Codex to overhaul the character/inventory system, replacing the AI-generated avatars with a character builder based on the [LPC Spritesheet Character Generator][12] so that people could equip the items they picked up and have that reflected on their avatar. And I added the concept of "item tags," standalone [AprilTags][13] that I 3D printed that could then be associated with items. 81 82 [12]: https://github.com/liberatedpixelcup/Universal-LPC-Spritesheet-Character-Generator 83 [13]: https://docs.wpilib.org/en/stable/docs/software/vision-processing/apriltag/apriltag-intro.html 84 85 {{<dither 55247387333_60bbe1a7d4_o.jpg "782x600">}}A phone running a pixel-art social game sits beside an orange conference lanyard and badge.{{</dither>}} 86 {{<dither dmp_screenshot.png "782x600">}}A cigar-smoking pixel-art captain with ski goggles, a glowing blue saber, and a cat sidekick.{{</dither>}} 87 88 The game was a big hit. The keychains were distributed in everyone's welcome bags along with a little explainer card. People were already playing when we got to Asheville (which was a relief as we'd never done a full end-to-end test). We created new items throughout the event (Daft Punk Helmet, Grogu, etc.), associated them with the item tags, and had a lot of fun hiding them at the different event locations. Major props to Claire for running with that side of things. 89 90 I don't know if we'll revisit this concept or if it'll be a one-time thing. I definitely need to write a comprehensive post about it. Look for that next month. 91 92 ### Gridfinity 93 94 Still having a blast with the 3D printer. My latest obsession is the [Gridfinity][14] organization system, printing little bins for all of our stuff. 95 96 {{<dither IMG_0196.jpeg "782x600">}}Gridfinity desk organizer.{{</dither>}} 97 {{<dither IMG_0252.jpeg "782x600">}}Gridfinity/GOEWS entryway organizer.{{</dither>}} 98 99 If you're into this sort of thing, check out this [desktop organizer set][15] and this [wall system][16] you can connect to a Gridfinity base with [this adapter][17] (and a ton of little magnets). 100 101 [14]: https://all3dp.com/2/gridfinity-simply-explained/ 102 [15]: https://makerworld.com/en/collections/16269937-hexed-desktop-series 103 [16]: https://www.printables.com/model/1090032-goews-greatly-over-engineered-wall-system 104 [17]: https://makerworld.com/en/models/831320-gridfinity-goews-tile-stand 105 106 ### Deck Project 107 108 Finally, we're in the early stages of replacing our rotted-out deck with a screened-in porch. We met with an architect who showed us some sketches: 109 110 {{<dither deck2.png "782x600">}}Architectural rendering of a screened-in second-story deck addition.{{</dither>}} 111 {{<dither deck1.png "782x600">}}Architectural sketch of a screened porch and elevated deck addition.{{</dither>}} 112 113 Exciting stuff! This month's looking busy, but I'm feeling relatively unencumbered with all of those obligations out of the way. Looking forward to getting back into music and kicking off the summer with a trip to the lake for Memorial Day and the [Running of the Bulls][18] 8K in downtown Durham. 114 115 ### This Month 116 117 * Adventure: Lake for Memorial Day; [Running of the Bulls][18] 118 * Project: make some new music 119 * Skill: I've been having a lot of fun finger drumming on my sampler while ChatGPT does my job for me -- might try to incorporate that into the new piece 120 121 [18]: https://bullcityrunning.com/our-races/running-of-the-bulls-8k/ 122 123 ### Reading & Listening 124 125 * Fiction: [_Operation Bounce House_][19], Matt Dinniman 126 * Non-fiction: [_Every Tool's a Hammer_][20], Adam Savage 127 * Music: [_Ecology Division_][21], Bastard Jazz Compilations 128 129 [19]: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/772005/operation-bounce-house-by-matt-dinniman/ 130 [20]: https://www.simonandschuster.net/books/Every-Tools-a-Hammer/Adam-Savage/9781982113483 131 [21]: https://bastardjazzcompilations.bandcamp.com/album/ecology-division 132 133 ### Links 134 135 * [Optimism is not a personality flaw][22] ([via][23]) 136 137 > Whoever can list the most reasons something won't work gets treated as the smartest person in the room. If you say "I think this could go well," you get ~the look. That slight tilt of the head. Optimism is treated like a belief in astrology. Pessimism reads as intelligence now. Optimism reads as naivety. This has gotten so baked into educated Western culture that most people don't notice they're doing it. But it's toxic, all the same. 138 139 * [Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I’d like][24] 140 141 > There are a whole bunch of reasons I’m not scared that my career as a software engineer is over now that computers can write their own code, partly because these things are amplifiers of existing experience. If you know what you’re doing, you can run so much faster with them. 142 143 * [Open Source Gave Me Everything Until I Had Nothing Left to Give - Kenneth Reitz][25] ([via][26]) 144 145 > I wish someone had told me this when I was twenty-three and staying up for three days straight because the code was flowing so beautifully. The code was beautiful. I was in trouble. 146 147 [22]: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/optimism-is-not-a-personality-flaw/ 148 [23]: https://www.manton.org/2026/04/12/optimism-by-default.html 149 [24]: https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/6/vibe-coding-and-agentic-engineering/#atom-everything 150 [25]: https://kennethreitz.org/essays/2026-03-18-open_source_gave_me_everything_until_i_had_nothing_left_to_give 151 [26]: https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/05/april-2026/