Collected Note

Russia's attack of Ukraine continues and gets worse. I want to keep my weeknotes light rather than share my reckons on world events, so may not mention in coming notes, but please consider donating if you're able – checkout the red cross appeal and this list of other ways to help (thanks Alex).

[seamless transition to triviality]

• This week started with The Worst case of Monday blues.
• Then, an upward trajectory.
• At work I got a little kick out of writing a little script – needs more work and tests – which takes a Sass abstract syntax tree generated by gonzales-pe and swaps out a given function call for a variable, taking its arguments into account. I think this is cool because it's generic, so it's easy to define new function / argument combinations and map them as needed. Unlike a regex it's much easy to handle things like keyed arguments. Hoping it'll enable our little cute team be more bold in breaking API changes of the UI components we look after, by potentially automating the most repetitive parts of migration that would be required for teams across the FT Group who depend on them – and have more immediate projects to worry about.
• ☝️ ft.com has finally dropped IE11 so there's a big opportunity for us to remove some technical debt, reduce our component bundle sizes to improve site performance, and support more brands, sub-brands, and modes across the group – always good for collaboration, design consistency, and reducing repeated work.
• With father's help I spent Thursday pulling up floorboards and following cables around and learning about ring circuits (YouTube explanation) – oh my, technical debt is so much worse in the physical world.
• Speaking of physical technical debt our Lick of paint plan has evolved into removing old paint, filling, sanding, moving some sockets from spurs to the ring main, replacing the carpet, removing an old hidden hearth, and laying new floorboards.
• Can't wait to be done and buy a bed frame.
• It was an early start today for a swim lesson, which finally I managed to get booked in after a lot of chasing.
  • I sink. I cannot float without moving.
  • I still can't swim well – like just about one or two 25m lengths – but I'm confident I can improve.
  • Now I have drills to practise between lessons, and don't worry so much about getting in other's way, and don't feel so silly.
  • Focusing on legs and arms separately is helping.
• A swim lesson was a good start to the day but it was a good day on multiple fronts 😀
  • Except a garden centre delivered me a shit tonne of the wrong compost.
  • Except I worked too hard today and had no lunch break, except scoffing peanut butter intermittently. This is unusual. I strive to not work hard and am mostly supported and successful in that. Although sometimes I have to think really hard, way harder than I want to. And other times I dream of Origami sprites at night and wake in cold sweats. But in terms of hours, and taking breaks, and working flexibly I'm very lucky. But not today.
• Week off, baby! First half DIY, second half relaxing around Alnwick and spending time with friends on the return leg.
• Now I'm off to make up for missing lunch by gorging myself on snacks until R is back for dinner time.
• Snacks and wine. Snacks and wine. Snacks and wine.
• THEN! Mush and spätzle! Mush and spätzle! Mush and spätzle!
• What a life.