index.md (6090B)
1 --- 2 title: "Dispatch #5 (July 2023)" 3 date: 2023-07-02T16:55:57-04:00 4 draft: false 5 tags: 6 - dispatch 7 references: 8 - title: "How to Slow Down Time | Valet." 9 url: https://www.valetmag.com/the-handbook/living/how-to-slow-down-time.php 10 date: 2023-07-05T16:08:47Z 11 file: www-valetmag-com-b1tpcf.txt 12 - title: "My thoughts on Helix after 6 months - Tim Hårek" 13 url: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months 14 date: 2023-07-02T12:53:51Z 15 file: timharek-no-ah7ilz.txt 16 - title: "What App is That?" 17 url: https://maggieappleton.com/apps 18 date: 2023-07-02T12:53:51Z 19 file: maggieappleton-com-7am49k.txt 20 - title: "Modern software quality, or why I think using language models for programming is a bad idea" 21 url: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/ 22 date: 2023-07-03T00:54:57Z 23 file: softwarecrisis-dev-7c7z9g.txt 24 - title: "The small web is beautiful" 25 url: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/ 26 date: 2023-07-03T00:52:08Z 27 file: benhoyt-com-vfdv1s.txt 28 - title: "Why You Own an iPad and Still Can’t Draw" 29 url: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw 30 date: 2023-07-03T01:05:26Z 31 file: maggieappleton-com-fube9k.txt 32 --- 33 34 June was dominated by work and travel. Weekdays were filled up with a client project we were working hard to wrap, weekends by plans with friends and both of our families: [Running of the Bulls][1], canoe camping near Saxapahaw, our yearly trip to Beaufort with Claire's college friends, and then a cruise in the Caribbean with Claire's family followed immediately by a trip up to DC to see mine. 35 36 [1]: https://bullcityrunning.com/our-races/running-of-the-bulls-8k/ 37 38 <!--more--> 39 40 {{<dither IMG_4041.jpeg "374x300">}}A smiling toddler runs along an outdoor track wearing a light blue shirt with a colorful heart, blue shorts, and race bib number 1490.{{</dither>}} 41 {{<dither 11B423F8-5D03-4155-B548-185E04A04595_1_105_c.jpeg "374x300">}}View from a canoe with sandaled feet and a paddle in the foreground, alongside another canoe carrying people and gear on a calm, tree-lined river under a clear blue sky.{{</dither>}} 42 {{<dither IMG_9457.jpeg "374x300">}}Two helmeted adults ride bicycles along a street lined with parked cars and storefronts, with a helmeted child in a rear seat on the leading bicycle.{{</dither>}} 43 {{<dither C65C4973-3266-4155-9786-F7B379BD8DD9_1_105_c.jpeg "374x300">}}A young child in a turquoise dress crouches beside a miniature golf hole, with a yellow ball nearby and two adults holding putters on a ship’s deck.{{</dither>}} 44 45 It was a busy month, sometimes overly so, but having so many unique experiences had this odd effect of slowing and expanding time, which is the opposite of how things tend to go as you get older ([good short piece along the same lines][2]). Most everything else fell by the wayside, but that's OK -- these were all awesome experiences, and I'm excited for a (relatively) quiet July. 46 47 After getting the trailer hitch installed last month, we picked up a [bike rack][3] and a [seat for Nev][4] and brought the bikes with us to Beaufort. This was **awesome** -- Beaufort's an idyllic coastal town in just about every way but one: parking sucks. Being able to zip up and down the main street on our bikes (and parking them right at our destination) was such a joy, and Nev seems to enjoy the rack-mounted seat a lot more than the trailer we've been using. 48 49 I'm still enjoying using Obsidian to collect link and make notes, though mostly in the "capture" phase[^1], collecting information and starting to put some structure around it. When something comes up and I think, man, I read something good about that at some point in the past, I'm using that as a cue to create a dedicated note, with the hope that the _next_ time it comes up, I'll have a useful thing to reference. 50 51 I also read some good articles about [Helix][5] and [Procreate][6], and I'm hoping to give those some attention this month. 52 53 [2]: https://www.valetmag.com/the-handbook/living/how-to-slow-down-time.php 54 [3]: https://1up-usa.com/product/2-super-duty-double 55 [4]: https://www.thule.com/en-us/child-bike-seats/rear-mounted-child-bike-seats/thule-yepp-nexxt-maxi-_-12080211 56 [5]: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months 57 [6]: https://maggieappleton.com/apps 58 59 ### This Month 60 61 * Adventure: dust off the road bike, fill the tires, grease the chain, throw it on the rack, and get out for a long ride 62 * Project: publish an article on [testing][7] on my company's website 63 * Skill: learn [Helix][8] movements, see if it'd be a good Vim replacement (I still love Vim, and I'm pretty good at it, but my config's dated and I'm wary of how much effort it'll take to modernize) 64 65 [7]: /notes/good-tests/ 66 [8]: https://helix-editor.com/ 67 68 ### Reading 69 70 * Fiction: [_The Golden Enclaves_][9], Naomi Novik 71 * Non-fiction: 72 * [_Rapt_][10], Winifred Gallagher 73 * [_Visual Thinking_][11], Williemien Brand 74 * [_The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life_][12], Epictetus 75 76 [9]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-golden-enclaves-naomi-novik/17789027?ean=9780593158357 77 [10]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/rapt-attention-and-the-focused-life-winifred-gallagher/7485226?ean=9780143116905 78 [11]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/visual-thinking-empowering-people-and-organisations-through-visual-collaboration-williemien-brand/12408256?ean=9789063694531 79 [12]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-manual-a-philosopher-s-guide-to-life-epictetus/15150488?ean=9781545461112 80 81 ### Links 82 83 * [Modern software quality, or why I think using language models for programming is a bad idea][13] -- I refer people to this article a lot in discussions around <abbr title="large language models">LLMs</abbr> and software development 84 * [The small web is beautiful][14] 85 * [Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw][15] 86 87 [13]: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/ 88 [14]: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/ 89 [15]: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw 90 91 [^1]: Tiago Forte's _Building a Second Brain_ outlines a four-step process: Capture, Organize, Distill, Express.