week notes 10-12-25

My wife started her new job this week and is loving it so far so that's great! The first few weeks she'll be just going into the office; it'll be nice when she can embrace being hybrid!

My grandfather (who's in his 90s) has been in and out of the hospital following emergency surgery at the end of last week and my dad had complications this week from and MRI. Neither of those things are fun but I think everyone is on the mend now. It's made things a bit stressful. My grandfather is nearing the end of his days - every time I've talked to him in the past few months have been hints this direction. Summers spent at his house, swimming in his pool, playing with cousins, learning to cook from my grandmother (she passed a few years ago) are some of my fondest childhood memories. We plan to visit over Christmas assuming plans play out like we think they will.

You might be wondering about the TMNT featured image on this post. The Humble Bundle has been advertising a TMNT graphic novel bundle that I jumped on because one of the books included is (supposedly) The Last Ronin. That's been on my to read list for a long time. I've heard great things, the story sounds right up my alley and I loved the turtles as a kid. Unfortunately, upon redeeming the bundle, 2 of the 35 books were missing and The Last Ronin was one of them. I messaged support immediately with screenshots and details and after 12 days no one has responded. I noticed on social media this past week that others had the same issue and then I posted in an IRC group and learned that these sorts of issues are increasingly common with Humble Bundle and their support is next to nil. Lesson learned. I won't be using or recommending Humble Bundle anymore. It still just sucks because it was meant to be a little birthday treat for my birthday later this month. Who knows - maybe they'll come through.

what I wrote

• I ended up just doing one piece this week - a follow up to the fire fighting piece. If you are interested in some discussion around I know Bix responded.

links worth viewing

• New passport and border control rules go into affect this week that seriously alienate people that are nonbinary. If this is you it's good to be aware especially if your passport currently has an X for gender (it'll no longer be accepted).
• Curious what feeds are? Check this out to learn all about blog feeds!
• Here's a primer on personal data storage.
• I love reading about people's systems. Ben Tsai's explanation of his plain text management system is great. Well worth a read.
• Politics suck. It sucks what all is happening in the US. It's even worse how many intentionally cover their eyes and ignore it. We shouldn't though, like with the case of this professor that's getting lots of death threats because he's a historian focused on fascism. We've got to be better and say no to fascism.
• How great was Pitchfork's 100 Greatest Rap Albums of All Time? Not great. I'm not at all surprised since I've always thought it catered to a pretty pasty indie rock crowd.

apps I'm trying

• Stuff: It feels a bit like Things for teams (which is what I needed). With my wife moving from a fully remote job to a hybrid job, we needed some joint repository of shared tasks and info (from what's in the fridge, meals, kids appointments, etc, etc). It looks like this will work really well - it already is even! Originally found in the Hiro Report! Check it out for a great newsletter worth subscribing to!
• Drime: Drime is like dropbox but from a French development team. They are newer, being actively developed and worth a look I think.

what I'm listening too

seen on social media