lee.ourand.me

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Lifenotes 3

Big Business

  • HappyGastropod, LLC is officially a thing. Iā€™ve been using the name HappyGastropod since 2008. Thirteen years later, weā€™re officially in business! Iā€™ve been working on a little bulletin-board software called Cafayo that prompted the move to start a company. Iā€™ve always loved the name HappyGastropod, and loved the goofy logo I made all those years ago: This thing remains a nights-and-weekends type of project. Itā€™s been a fun learning experience thus far, and Iā€™m excited by the possibilities.
  • Iā€™m building Cafayo using some Hotwire libraries and techniques. Itā€™s an absolute delight to build apps this way. Itā€™s so refreshing, having spent the past several years writing in the flavor-of-the-month single-page-app framework for work. Hotwire is simple, fast, and (once you wrap your brain around it) surprisingly flexible. A shame about its whole relation to Basecampā€¦
  • After years of prodding by some family and friends, I broke down and bought an Xbox Series-S. I got it primarily to whip my brotherā€™s ass in the MotoGP Game. Itā€™s not going as planned, thus far. I have much practice to do.
  • Governorā€™s Island is open to the public yet again. Cynthia and I went this weekend and enjoyed the scenery.
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Lifenotes 2

Type-O

  • New joke who dis? Ready?

    A minister, a priest, and a rabbit walk into a hospital. A doctor asks the rabbit: ā€œdo you know your blood type?ā€ The rabbit replies: ā€œI donā€™t. But I think Iā€™m a type-oā€

  • Lots of people around me are getting vaccinatedā€”including my parents. It finally feels like the end of this pandemic is in sight. With summer approaching, Iā€™m really looking forward to the possibility of some semblance of non-pandemic normalcy.
  • Spring is upon us, and it feels so good. Last year, we heard nonstop how NY was dead. This weekend proved otherwise.
  • The first race of the MotoGP season is next week. Itā€™s a little sad to see Valentino Rossi move down to the satellite team. But good grief does his setup look excellent. Valentino Rossi on his new Petronas Yamaha
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Lifenotes 1

Let’s Begin

  • I recently stumbled upon Tom Stuartā€™s Weekly Notes, and was inspired by the simplicity of keeping a weekly occasional set of notes. So, letā€™s embrace the opportunity to start anew.
  • I wrapped up Jason Hickelā€™s Less is More. Itā€™s is an excellent read about the incompatibility of growth-based capitalism with environmental sustainability. I used to have the naive idea that GDP could continue to grow while we transitioned to sustainable energy production. Hickel pretty thouroughly debunks that idea. Eye opening and mostly hopeful book. Definitely recommend it.
  • Gallā€™s Law came up at work this week. It states:

    A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

  • Iā€™ve been playing Dead by Daylight with some buds for a few weeks now. Itā€™s grown on me. Itā€™s a hilarious-to-play asymmetrical survival game where four survivors try to escape from a killer. Best played with friends on voice chat so you can hear teammates scream bloody murder as theyā€™re found by the killer.