diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/My Favorite Kings.mp3 b/content/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/My Favorite Kings.mp3 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..632f6b6 Binary files /dev/null and b/content/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/My Favorite Kings.mp3 differ diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/index.md b/content/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0feab2 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/journal/dispatch-35-january-2026/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Dispatch #35 (January 2026)" +date: 2025-12-11T00:33:58-05:00 +draft: false +tags: +- dispatch +references: +- 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 +--- + +Some thoughts here... + + + + + +* + +### This Month + +* Adventure: +* Project: +* Skill: + +### Reading & Listening + +* Fiction: [_Title_][1], Author +* Non-fiction: [_Title_][2], Author +* Music: [_Title_][3], Author + * + * + * + +[1]: https://bookshop.org/ +[2]: https://bookshop.org/ +[3]: https://www.turntablelab.com/ + +### Links + +* [Title][4] +* [Title][5] +* [Title][6] + +[4]: https://example.com/ +[5]: https://example.com/ +[6]: https://example.com/ diff --git a/static/archive/macwright-com-5fr93r.txt b/static/archive/macwright-com-5fr93r.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aac8ab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/macwright-com-5fr93r.txt @@ -0,0 +1,268 @@ +[1]Tom MacWright + +2025@macwright.com + +[2]Tom MacWright + + • [3]Writing⇠ + • [4]Reading + • [5]Photos + • [6]Projects + • [7]Drawings + • [8]Micro + • [9]About + +Auto Light Dark +2025 Year in Review + +Well, nearly another year in the books. How did it go? + +Books per year chart + +It’s genuinely surprising to me how consistent my reading stays year-over-year. +I don’t set reading goals or have a predictable pace, and every year has at +least a month in which I’m reading nothing, my momentum growth to a halt. But +at the end of every year, it’s range-bound between 19 and 22 for the past five +years. + +The count is 19 at the moment, but I’m reading a [13]fast-paced sci-fi so it’ll +probably be 20 by the end of the year. + +[14]A Confederacy of Dunces was easily the most entertaining book this year - +an absolute riot, funny and unique. [15]Things Become Other Things, from [16] +Craig Mod, was the most affecting book of the year, the only one that made me +cry a little. And [17]The Fort Bragg Cartel was the most engaging, +can’t-put-it-down book. If you can stomach the difficult material - detailed +descriptions of war crimes and domestic abuse - I highly recommend reading it. + +Race times + +This was a decent year for running, too. I ran five 5ks and two half-marathons +in 2025, and achieved my simple goal of running sub-20 in the 5k. The thing +about running a mediocre 19:13 PR in high school and then running mid-19s +twenty years later is that now I’m in the top 10% of my age group! On a +relative basis, I keep getting faster. + +Mostly I blame the extreme summer heat for some of the higher times: many of +the races had warnings about high humidity, high heat, and bad air quality, +warning people from overexertion. A sample from their pre-race email: + + The weather forecast is for temperatures in the low 90s. Please dress and + hydrate properly, and avoid overexertion. The Air Quality Index is + predicted to be over 100 at race start, members of sensitive groups may + experience health effects. Limit outdoor exposure if you are sensitive to + ozone. This might be a great night to run easy or tempo effort, please + adjust your pace expectations! + +That said, I think I could still do better. Running low 19 minute times would +be lovely and I think within my abilities. I’ve been following an ‘intuitive +training plan’ this whole time, which in other words means not having a plan. +2026 I plan to have a plan, and probably the cornerstone of that plan is +logging many more easy miles. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +How’s work been going? I can point to the [18]Val Town Retrospective that I +wrote for most of the answer to that question. 2025 for [19]Val Town was a year +of big ups and downs. Simultaneously, the job became both more demanding and I +became more adjusted to it: it’s remarkable how adaptable people and +organizations can be. + +On a day-to-day level, as an engineer, the codebase has grown to the point +where it’s a bit difficult to keep all in my head, and there are important +components that I shamefully haven’t directly worked on. For a ‘CTO’, needing +to have the system memorized might feel like an no-no, but for an organization +of this size my job is really to be a general-purpose builder, fixer, and +understander. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +I was really into rhythmic instrumental music: SML’s take on jazz in [20]Small +Medium Large and [21]How Have You Been are amazing, the kind of music that +works for focused coding, a dinner party, or a long drive. + +[22]Septet by John Carroll Kirby + +I loved John Carroll Kirby’s alternative take on jazz too - which can sound +cheesy, like elevator music, until you get a minute in. + +[23]Low on Foot by Slow Mass + +Slow Mass’s [24]Low on Foot was probably my album of the year: almost every +song is marked with five stars in my music library in [25]Swinsian. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +I feel unsatisfied with my productive output in 2025. But this is a permanent +condition I think. + +First bike bag + +Sewing was the big new thing. I sewed about five bags, including three for my +bicycle, and rode almost 1,000 miles with them. + +Bag 2 + +It’s a fantastic hobby. Designing the bags exercises my brain in just the right +ways, it’s tactile and low-tech. My sewing machine was manufactured around +1970, and works great. I love the learning process involved: my first attempt +at sewing a bag for the front rack of my bike yielded clear lessons for bag 2, +things like using stiffer fabric where the bag needs support and trying to +minimize seams in areas that are on the top, to preserve waterproofing. + +Pending another bike, I’m pretty much done with bike bags, but there are plenty +more projects on the horizon for the sewing machine. + +Besides the flashy bags-from-scratch, it’s been useful for simpler things like: + + • Restuffing my couch cushions and sewing them back closed + • Repairing the pocket in some running shorts that had developed a hole + • Hemming some jeans that were too long, and an oversized shirt + +It’s been really rewarding, and sewing goes really well with instrumental jazz. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +That said, my free-time coding projects have been fewer. I implemented [26] +indiepixel, a pixel-art rendering layer in Python for my Tidbyt display. And I +maintained [27]Placemark, putting time into simplifying it and adding a handful +of new features, like [28]drawing lines with automatic routing. + +But that’s about it? The coding I’ve done on weekends has mostly been +work-related, and not much of that either. I still have fun coding, but I have +to say that it’s changed for me. The tech industry just feels bad in so many +ways, from its open embrace of fascism to the nihilistic startups that +advertise via rage-bait. LLMs have changed things a lot too: it’s hard to tell +what people value anymore, and how people have fun. I’ve [29]written a lot +about LLMs, so won’t repeat it all. See: [30]Would LLMs democratizing coding be +a pyrrhic victory?, [31]Hallucination City, [32]LLMs pivot to the aesthetics of +thinking, and more. + +I’ve long aimed to diversify my joys: part of finding a love of music, art, +sewing, running, and so on is that they can serve as backup ways to feel happy +when the world’s tough. I see some of what’s happening now - people using +computers to do art, automating the skillful work they used to do, and I wonder +what this leaves time for them to do: in the excess time, where do you find +joy? + +I’ve been finding most of that joy away from the keyboard, this year. I hope I +rediscover some of that spark in 2026. I have been having fun learning [33] +Effect and writing some Rust, and there are plenty of ideas left. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Brooklyn continues to be good to me. Living here delivers on my priorities in +life: things like never drive and live near friends. By those metrics, it does +great, and always surprises me with just how much of the world is packed into +the 97 square miles of the borough, and Manhattan and Queens nearby. + +And yeah - the [34]election of Zohran Mamdani makes it even better. This year +was the first time that I knocked on doors for a mayoral candidate, and so did +a majority of my friends. It’s pretty exciting. I think that the next few years +will be great for the city, and though it’ll be really tough to deliver on all +of his promises, even just having a mayor in office who shows up to the job and +wants the best for his constituents will be a welcome change from the previous +administration. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +I [35]started this blog in 2011 with a vague photo of San Jose and some +non-committal prose. So 2026 will be the 15th anniversary of the blog. + +Blogging has been, for me, an unalloyed success. It has connected me to people, +given me a place to develop my thoughts, made some of my work on the internet - +a place always decaying and forgetting - a little more permanent. I absolutely +recommend everyone do it. + +I know why most people don’t do it: not enough time and too much fear of +publishing ‘bad writing.’ Maybe ‘nothing to write about,’ too, though this +never seems that real to me, given how the average person I meet has +interesting thoughts and ideas to share. + +I forget exactly when I removed analytics from the blog, but it was a long time +ago. Since then I don’t know what ‘takes off’ or ‘goes viral’ and it’s mostly +fine with me. Lately though, I have been discovering other indie blogs with +articles that reference or respond to mine, and I really want a way for this to +be slightly more social. Not fully social of course - no comments and this is +not part of any network - but I want to know about link-backs. That’s probably +the focus for 2026. + +I think this idea has been going around - my friend [36]Waldo was discussing it +the other day, and [37]webmentions came up as an option. I’ve tried webmentions +in the past with little success - not many blogs supported them and I got a lot +of spam - but it’s worth another shot. It’s hard not to get a little +discouraged off the jump because webmentions have spam, their predecessor [38] +pingbacks were ripe with abuse, [39]trackbacks had even more spam, and even if +I try to find backlinks with [40]ahrefs.io, there are plenty of spam domains +there too or SEO schemes. The internet is an adversarial place. + +In meta-blog news, this blog has been hosted on [41]Netlify since [42]2017 and +I can’t find a strong reason to switch off. It’s been rock-solid. I’ve been +using [43]Jekyll since I started in 2011 and it continues to work great, though +if I started from scratch I’d probably use [44]11ty. It would be nice to have a +little more power over server-rendering and deploy on [45]Hetzner, but it seems +like it’d be a step-up in complexity. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Riding the C&O Canal + +Photo from riding the GAP trail + C&O Canal this year + + every strange thing you’ve ever been into, every failed hobby or forgotten + instrument, everything you have ever learned will come back to you, will + serve you when you need it. No love, however brief, is wasted. - [46]Louise + Miller + +December 7, 2025  [47]Tom MacWright +[48]@macwright.com on Bluesky, [49]@tmcw@mastodon.social on Mastodon + + +References: + +[1] https://macwright.com/ +[2] https://macwright.com/ +[3] https://macwright.com/writing +[4] https://macwright.com/reading/ +[5] https://macwright.com/photos/ +[6] https://macwright.com/projects/ +[7] https://macwright.com/drawings/ +[8] https://macwright.com/micro/ +[9] https://macwright.com/about/ +[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Is_No_Antimemetics_Division +[14] https://macwright.com/2025/01/25/a-confederacy-of-dunces +[15] https://macwright.com/2025/06/29/things-become-other-things +[16] https://craigmod.com/ +[17] https://macwright.com/2025/12/02/the-fort-bragg-cartel +[18] https://macwright.com/2025/11/11/val-town +[19] https://www.val.town/ +[20] https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/small-medium-large +[21] https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/how-you-been +[22] https://johncarrollkirby.bandcamp.com/album/septet +[23] https://slowmassmusic.bandcamp.com/album/low-on-foot +[24] https://slowmassmusic.bandcamp.com/album/low-on-foot +[25] https://swinsian.com/ +[26] https://macwright.com/2025/04/12/tidbyt-second-life +[27] https://www.placemark.io/ +[28] https://mastodon.social/@tmcw/115595261706919222 +[29] https://macwright.com/2023/04/15/ai +[30] https://macwright.com/2024/07/18/llms-democratizing-coding +[31] https://macwright.com/2025/11/07/hallucination-city +[32] https://macwright.com/2025/11/05/llms-thinking-pivot +[33] https://effect.website/ +[34] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohran_Mamdani +[35] https://macwright.com/2011/07/04/hello-internet +[36] https://mastodon.social/@waldoj/115670295623060834 +[37] https://indieweb.org/Webmention +[38] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingback +[39] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback +[40] https://ahrefs.com/ +[41] https://www.netlify.com/ +[42] https://macwright.com/2017/05/08/https +[43] https://jekyllrb.com/ +[44] https://www.11ty.dev/ +[45] https://www.hetzner.com/ +[46] https://x.com/louisethebaker/status/1379961867922239497?lang=en +[47] https://macwright.com/about/ +[48] https://bsky.app/profile/macwright.com +[49] https://mastodon.social/@tmcw