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Weeklyish musings: 2022-12-23
Technical tinkering
Slowly working my way through “Hands-on Rust: Effective Learning through 2D Game Development and Play” by Herbert Wolverson. I generally reach for Ruby first when there’s something I want to build, but having familiarity with other languages has a number of benefits.
What I’m reading
“Zombie Bake-Off”, Stephen Graham Jones (audiobook).
“Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files”, Jim Butcher.
In progress:
- “The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse”, multiple authors.
- “Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery”, Ally Carter.
- “The Well of Ascension”, Brandon Sanderson (audiobook).
What I’m playing
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Weeklyish musings: 2022-12-16
What I’m reading
“Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker’s Guid to the Galaxy”, Neil Gaiman (audiobook).
“Siren Queen”, Nghi Vo (audiobook).
“Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor”, Ally Carter.
In progress:
- “Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files”, Jim Butcher.
What I’m playing
Completed - The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow. Point-and-click adventure with a folk horror theme, retro visual style, and good voice acting / sound design that combines to achieve an effective sense of dread. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Control scheme worked well on Steam Deck.
Completed - Life is Strange 2.
The Descendant. Had several crashes early in the game on Steam Deck. May have to come back to this one when I can play it on Windows.
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Weekly-ish (?) musings: 2022-12-09
What I’m reading
“Ghost Story”, Peter Straub (audiobook). I was hopeful after having enjoyed his collaborations with Stephen King (“The Talisman” and “Black House”). While I enjoyed some of the prose, I’m not sure I would’ve made it through if I were reading it instead of listening while doing other things.
“The Odyssey”, Homer / Emily Wilson - translator (audiobook). Fairly approachable modern translation written in iambic pentameter verse and narrated by Claire Danes. Includes a lengthy introduction and translator’s note that provides additional context.
In progress:
- “The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse”, multiple authors.
- “Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files”, Jim Butcher.
- “Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor”, Ally Carter.
What I’m playing
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My Reading Trends and 2019 Highlights
Starting in 2019, I decided to make a more committed effort to reading in my free time, I think somewhat prompted by Goodreads’ annual reading challenge feature combined with the added convenience of reading on a Kindle. I read ~30 books that year, with a mix of books I read for myself and ones I read aloud to the kids as part of our long-standing nightly bedtime routine. With a shift to working from home during 2020 and increased work schedule flexibility, that ramped up to ~100 books in 2020 and ~150 in 2021. This year I discovered audiobooks and started listening to them during times I would have listened to podcasts previously, which meant even more time for books (over 250 so far this year). I’m not usually one to write a review or even rate books as I read them, but have been thinking it would be nice to better capture some that I’ve either particularly enjoyed or have made a strong impression on me. With that in mind, here are my highlights from 2019 (in no particular order):
- “Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman: Absolutely lovely.
- Impossible Times series by Mark Lawrence (“One Word Kill”, “Limited Wish”, and “Dispel Illusion”): Fun Time Travel? Sign me up.
- The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss (“The Name of the Wind”, “The Wise Man’s Fear”, and “The Slow Regard of Silent Things”): I felt the early part of the 1st book dragged a bit for me, but once it picked up I loved this series. Really hopeful it continues.
- The Sixth World series by Rebecca Roanhorse (“Trail of Lightning” and “Storm of Locusts”): Post apocalyptic setting, urban fantasy, and Diné mythology
- Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson (“Skyward” and “Starsight”): Enjoyable YA sci-fi
- “Dragon Pearl” by Yoon Ha Lee: Another YA sci-fi, elements of Korean (?) mythology
- Red Rising saga by Pierce Brown (“Red Rising”, “Golden Son”, “Morning Star”, and “Iron Gold”): Violent dystopian sci-fi. Strong Hunger Games vibe.
- And I finally finished the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (“Towers of Midnight” and “A Memory of Light”): I found some of the books struggled with pacing, which put me off for a while. Glad I saw it through to the end. I’ve happily gone back and re-read or listened to some of the early books in the series more than once.
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Distributed Monoliths
As part of developing RESTful HTTP APIs at work, there’s been a lot of discussion over the “best” way to architect/implement everything. To avoid relying strictly on my own instincts and relearning mistakes that many others have already learned from, I’ve been reading O’Reilly’s Building Microservices. I haven’t finished it yet, but have gotten a lot out of what I’ve read so far (and been pleased to see that my instincts have been largely supported by someone who’s experienced implementing such systems).
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