---
title: "Dispatch #5 (July 2023)"
date: 2023-07-02T16:55:57-04:00
draft: false
tags:
- dispatch
references:
- title: "How to Slow Down Time | Valet."
  url: https://www.valetmag.com/the-handbook/living/how-to-slow-down-time.php
  date: 2023-07-05T16:08:47Z
  file: www-valetmag-com-b1tpcf.txt
- title: "My thoughts on Helix after 6 months - Tim Hårek"
  url: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months/
  date: 2023-07-02T12:53:51Z
  file: timharek-no-ah7ilz.txt
- title: "What App is That?"
  url: https://maggieappleton.com/apps
  date: 2023-07-02T12:53:51Z
  file: maggieappleton-com-7am49k.txt
- title: "Modern software quality, or why I think using language models for programming is a bad idea"
  url: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/
  date: 2023-07-03T00:54:57Z
  file: softwarecrisis-dev-7c7z9g.txt
- title: "The small web is beautiful"
  url: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/
  date: 2023-07-03T00:52:08Z
  file: benhoyt-com-vfdv1s.txt
- title: "Why You Own an iPad and Still Can’t Draw"
  url: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw
  date: 2023-07-03T01:05:26Z
  file: maggieappleton-com-fube9k.txt
---

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.

[1]: https://bullcityrunning.com/our-races/running-of-the-bulls-8k/

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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.

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.

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.

I also read some good articles about [Helix][5] and [Procreate][6], and I'm hoping to give those some attention this month.

[2]: https://www.valetmag.com/the-handbook/living/how-to-slow-down-time.php
[3]: https://1up-usa.com/product/2-super-duty-double
[4]: https://www.thule.com/en-us/child-bike-seats/rear-mounted-child-bike-seats/thule-yepp-nexxt-maxi-_-12080211
[5]: https://timharek.no/blog/my-thoughts-on-helix-after-6-months/
[6]: https://maggieappleton.com/apps

This month:

* Adventure: dust off the road bike, fill the tires, grease the chain, throw it on the rack, and get out for a long ride
* Project: publish an article on [testing][7] on my company's website
* 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)

[7]: /notes/good-tests
[8]: https://helix-editor.com/

Reading:

* Fiction: [_The Golden Enclaves_][9], Naomi Novik
* Non-fiction:
  * [_Rapt_][10], Winifred Gallagher
  * [_Visual Thinking_][11], Williemien Brand
  * [_The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life_][12], Epictetus

[9]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-golden-enclaves-naomi-novik/17789027?ean=9780593158357
[10]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/rapt-attention-and-the-focused-life-winifred-gallagher/7485226?ean=9780143116905
[11]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/visual-thinking-empowering-people-and-organisations-through-visual-collaboration-williemien-brand/12408256?ean=9789063694531
[12]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-manual-a-philosopher-s-guide-to-life-epictetus/15150488?ean=9781545461112

Links:

* [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
* [The small web is beautiful][14]
* [Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw][15]

[13]: https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/ai-and-software-quality/
[14]: https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/
[15]: https://maggieappleton.com/still-cant-draw

[^1]: Tiago Forte's _Building a Second Brain_ outlines a four-step process: Capture, Organize, Distill, Express.
