---
title: "Dispatch #10 (December 2023)"
date: 2023-12-06T12:00:00-05:00
draft: false
tags:
- dispatch
references:
- title: "36 Hours in Durham, North Carolina: Things to Do and See - The New York Times"
  url: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/02/travel/things-to-do-durham-nc.html
  date: 2023-12-07T01:32:04Z
  file: www-nytimes-com-s2rtib.txt
- title: "A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft | The New Yorker"
  url: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/20/a-coder-considers-the-waning-days-of-the-craft?currentPage=all
  date: 2023-12-07T01:36:38Z
  file: www-newyorker-com-41taro.txt
- title: "What OpenAI shares with Scientology - by Henry Farrell"
  url: https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/look-at-scientology-to-understand
  date: 2023-12-07T01:40:06Z
  file: www-programmablemutter-com-8wp6z1.txt
- title: "Feedbin: Ruby Open Source RSS Reader"
  url: https://allaboutcoding.ghinda.com/ruby-open-source-feedbin
  date: 2023-12-07T01:41:18Z
  file: allaboutcoding-ghinda-com-jnjy0d.txt
---

We spent the week of Thanksgiving with my sister near Albany, New York. Tough drive, but it was great to get the whole family together and for Nev to get some extended time with her cousins. Highlights included the [Catskill Mountain Railroad Polar Express][1] and some unexpected snowfall.

[1]: https://catskillmountainrailroad.com/event/the-polar-express/

<!--more-->

{{<thumbnail IMG_9217.jpg "800x" />}}
{{<thumbnail IMG_5088.jpg "800x" />}}

In what's now I guess an annual tradition, I ran a 10K the morning of Thanksgiving, this time the [Troy Turkey Trot][2]. I felt great, and I'm happy with my time ([results][3], [certificate][4]). Claire joked that after you run a marathon, a half-marathon becomes your favorite race distance. That's how I feel about 10Ks -- it's like the first half of a half-marathon, before it really starts to suck.

[2]: https://troyturkeytrot.com/
[3]: /journal/dispatch-10-december-2023/ttt-result.pdf
[4]: /journal/dispatch-10-december-2023/ttt-cert.pdf

I spent few evenings building a tool to keep Markdown links in order, which I've called `mdrenum`. I documented the process thoroughly in a [separate post][5]. Super fun to make and quite useful for writing these posts. It's up on [GitHub][6] if you're interested.

[5]: /journal/keep-markdown-links-in-order-with-mdrenum/
[6]: https://github.com/dce/mdrenum

I bought a [201 Pocket Piano][7] after seeing it on [Bonobo's gear list][8] so that I could make some music while we were traveling. This thing is cool! Great sounds and patterns, MIDI in/out, battery powered and a built-in speaker. The company that makes it releases new synths pretty regularly, and it's super straightforward to swap them out -- just plug it into your computer, hit a couple keys, and it shows up as a drive.

[7]: https://www.critterandguitari.com/201-pocket-piano
[8]: https://equipboard.com/pros/bonobo

Here's a new track I made with it, called "Cirrus" (keeping with the cloud theme):

<audio controls src="/journal/dispatch-10-december-2023/Cirrus.mp3"></audio>

I published a few other things this month: ["Maintenance Matters: Good Tests"][9] on my company blog ([mirrored here][10]). I was also up for a company-wide presentation and ended up just doing a gift guide of things we own and recommend. Doesn't seem worth a standalone post but [here's a copy of the list][11].

[9]: https://www.viget.com/articles/maintenance-matters-good-tests/
[10]: /elsewhere/maintenance-matters-good-tests
[11]: /notes/2023-holiday-gift-guide

This month:

* Adventure: mountain biking on the trails near my in-laws' during the break
* Project: make Nev an art table inspired by [this one from Ikea][12]; maybe finally build that music workstation
* Skill: [Ableton Live][13]

[12]: https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/flisat-childrens-table-30298419/
[13]: https://www.ableton.com/en/live/


Reading:

* Fiction: [_Remote Control_][14], Andy McNab
* Non-fiction: [_Step by Step Mixing_][15], [Bjorgvin Benediktsson][16]

[14]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/remote-control-andy-mcnab/15505041?ean=9781787397231
[15]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/step-by-step-mixing-how-to-create-great-mixes-using-only-5-plug-ins-bjorgvin-benediktsson/9946155?ean=9781733688802
[16]: https://www.stepbystepmixing.com/

Links:

* [36 Hours in Durham, North Carolina: Things to Do and See][17] -- this is a pretty good guide to my city (though don't sleep on [Viceroy][18]) but I'm mostly including this because you can see a couple tables I made in the upper left corner of the main image.

* [A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft][19]

  > Coding has always felt to me like an endlessly deep and rich domain. Now I find myself wanting to write a eulogy for it.

* [What OpenAI shares with Scientology][20]

  > Even if you, as an AI risk person, don’t buy the full intellectual package, you find yourself looking for work in a field where the funding, the incentives, and the organizational structures mostly point in a single direction.

* [Feedbin: Ruby Open Source RSS Reader][21] -- I've been a user and fan since Google shut down Reader; neat that it's written in my preferred language/framework.

[17]: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/02/travel/things-to-do-durham-nc.html
[18]: https://www.viceroydurham.com/
[19]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/20/a-coder-considers-the-waning-days-of-the-craft?currentPage=all
[20]: https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/look-at-scientology-to-understand
[21]: https://allaboutcoding.ghinda.com/ruby-open-source-feedbin
