Well, my wife blocked me on Threads about 3 days ago. I’ve been so busy I didn’t even notice. I’ve really enjoyed shring a “real” social media platform with her, especially as she’s very funny and I get a window into her StrayKids (“Stay”) world. But oh well. Apparently my posts and those of my daughter somehow polluted her algorithm and sucked her into the general hellscape that is modern social media. ...
“Do you like yourself?” he asked. I burst out laughing. I must’ve laughed for fifteen seconds. “Does anyone answer ‘yes’ to that question?” I replied, once I finally got a handle on it. “Yes,” he replied flatly. Apparently the part of therapy where they “hold space” includes pregnant pauses while they wait for you to do…something. “Well then: No. I don’t like myself.” Things you don’t stay to a therapist: Stop this train; I want to get off. ...
I’m sitting here at desk AUS13 07.580.K3, and I’m tired. Last weekend, Whitney called an audible and sent me up to Abiline on Sunday and Monday to attend the ACU Presidential Scholars Reception and tour day. This was also the day Maria decided ACU would be her undergraduate choice, culminating 2 years of college visits. I’m not 100% on this list, but I think she visited: Baylor (twice) ACU (4 times overall, including a summer program) TCU Texas A&M UT Dallas University of North Texas UT Arlington Texas Tech Duke (Summer Program) UNC-Chapel Hill (while @ Duke) Maria was resolved to attend a school in Texas so some of the schools we dangled before her (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Vandy, etc.) didn’t resonate at all. General feedback on preferences: ...
I’m starting to get this blog into shape again. The transition to hugo was never fully complete, and I didn’t fully get the publishing workflow setup. The Blogger-to-jekyll script did scrape the comments into their own posts, but they didn’t actually get segregated and so many of my posts with comments just became the comments posts. I still don’t fully have the hang of the << ref >> syntax, but I’m getting there. Zed has been a joy thus far. I’m fully off of VS Code and I don’t see compelling reasons to go back as it has MCP integrations of its own. ...
So, 20 years ago today, I got married. From three days in to the marriage I screwed things up, and have continued to do so since. My wife is honoring her commitment to me, but honestly she signed-up for none of this. In this post, I’d like to enumerate some things I’d do differently if I had a time machine. I’d still get married. It must be said: I love my wife, and I was head-over-heels in love with her when we married. I firmly believe I would be dead or in prison if not for my wife. And of course I love all our children. No regrets. ...
As Thomas Paine coined in The American Crisis These are the times that try men’s souls. February is near done. Spring comes, but what Spring will that be? The Spring of destitution? The warm rebirth of tyranny? Paine would be laughing at us now, handing over our country to either side, frankly. To the feckless Democrats unable to govern, or to the bald-faced Republicans governing only for the “Techn-Anarcho-Fascist Oligarchs”–either way he’d be disgusted. ...
I maintain the second half of February, after Valentine’s day is just…depressing. Above: the Author’s house back in Kentucky 10 years ago today The Superbowl is over. This year’s was a terrible game in which the Eagles ran roughshod over the KC Chiefs until the 4th quarter. College basketball’s March Madness hasn’t begun. Kentucky men’s basketball has overperformed this year, but they’re going to get slaughtered in both the SEC tournament and NCAA. Every game is usually exciting, at least. Kentucky Women’s basketball are firing on all cylinders and may be in the hunt for a National Championship. The weather is just…awful. Texas veers from 85+ one day to 25 the next. We’ve survived one cold snap in January and it looks like another coming this week. My hometown is underwater for the 3rd time in 5 years. Extesive swathes of land freeze under ice and snow. At work, we’re in the silly season somewhere between layoffs, promotions, and pay increases (if any are forthcoming). The outlook doesn’t seem great. I’d write about DOGE and the collapse of our government, but plenty of other people are ahead of me. Seems you wring your hands, threaten revolution, or stick your head in the sand to some degree. ...
Nic-Fit I got my first taste of office life when I worked a Summer in the basement of the Breathitt County Courthouse as a gopher/assistant for my paternal Aunt Lena. Her office, like that of my maternal Aunt Lenora, handled paying people. That cigarette-smoke infested basement was so bad that one weekend I had nicotine withdrawl, and I wasn’t a smoker. But, everyone was congenial enough, a group of women who got along on a molecular level. They covered for each other, looked out for people in trouble, and generally had a “work to live” attitude. ...
So this is going to be odd coming from a guy working at a place with a Leadership Principle saying “Speed matters in business” If I’m doing my job right, I consider myself to be a “slow” developer. I’ve watched the recent explosion across my social feeds about AI SUPERCHARGED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS! like Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude, and Warp Terminal. They all seem neat, and this seems like a Nova (if not a Supernova) of dev tooling we haven’t seen since Netbeans/Eclipse/IntelliJ battled it out 15 years ago to see who could make IT departments upgrade from 512 MB developer machiens fastest. ...
All the Leaves are Brown And the sky is grey I’ve been for a walk On a Winter’s Day My college roommate Chris died last week. He was 46 years old, the same age as me. I have no idea what he died of. I was a groomsman in his first wedding in Orlando, Florida, though I don’t remember what year that was–early 2000’s likely 2001-2002. Chris was a guest at my own wedding in 2005, and likely would’ve been a groomsman if it was a larger affair. Chris & Jessica stayed in contact with Whitney and myself until they divorced, though again I don’t remember when that was…the latter part of the 2000’s. ...
Since moving 45 minutes north of Austin in 2020, I drive at least 90 minutes every work-day. Some days (especially if it’s raining), that can total 2 hours. This year mark’s Amazon’s return to 5 Days per week in-office so that will be 10 hours a week on the road, 50 or so weeks a year. To maintain sanity, I did two things: I traded-in my 2018 Honda Civic 6MT for a fancy toyota (A used Lexus ES300h). Let’s be honest: It’s a couch on wheels and a quiet place to be for those 90 minutes. Look for details on that coming later. I’ve gotten very acquainted with podcasts and audiobooks. I’ve loved podcasts for a long time. Here’s my list from 2012 They’re the soundtrack to me doing things: Yardwork, ranchwork, driving, travel. In general they ease the loneliness that is modern life–Someone’s voice in your ear, helping you learn or laugh. ...
So, it was quite a year, of some advances and pain. I’m still here, so let’s get into it. Professional Life A Door Closes Last January was probably the lowest I’d been in many years. I was looking for a new job. I managed 6 people in Seattle from an office in Austin, I’d been converted in January 2023 officially from Software Development Engineer (SDE) to Software Development Manager (SDM), though I’d been doing the job from April 2022. (This will become important later). ...