Ah, my favourite part of living in the UK, the constant supply of free kindling from the TV license threatening letters people.
Been in one place for almost two months and getting that itchy feet thing.
My brother has a genius habit of putting coconut cream in tomato-based pasta sauces. You don't know it's there, but it absolutely levels up the sauce.
My brother walked in on me draining some chickpeas I'd left to soak so I took the opportunity to explain to him the various exciting properties of aquafaba and he nodded and smiled and backed away saying "...I'll just leave you to your alchemy."
Dear companies*, if I email you do not try to respond by calling me. * This applies to people too, but isn't usually a problem because don't usually have my number..
Down a 2009 W3C mailing list archive rabbithole, for no discernable reason.
As the family 'computer person' I just spent 2 hours trying to help someone with a mail merge and JFC it's so hard?! Even with purely google tools. I can't believe things haven't moved on since I last knew how to do this, in the early 00s.
HMRC "do you need help with your tax return" emails are so passive aggressive. Okay okay okay I'm getting around to it, jeez
I just found this chat from 13 Feb 2011.. two thousand and eleven. Oh sweet summer child.
I like to run at sunset, but that's now so early I'm still full from lunch. Winter's timing is appalling.
Only 8000 words behind, this is fine.
Opening, fixing, and closing (with comment) github issues on my own projects does feel a lot like talking to myself.
Walked to Burntisland from Kirkcaldy (GPS trace) the back way. I was scoping it out as a cycle route, but the last third is completely inaccessible to a bike (at least with my level of ability) even when the paths aren't completely flooded (which they were). Stopped for a nice lunch at The Fix, and wrote for a bit, then picked up groceries from Grain & Sustain. Train home with a full backpack.
Amy added 28 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Walked to Burntisland today along the coastal path to pick up supplies from Grain & Sustain. Rain swept along the coast at one point, but timed it (totally on purpose of course) so that it was going in the opposite direction to us and we just passed through it for a few minutes. Almost got wet feet on the tramp across Burntisland's enormous beach. Then, because it's Sunday and the train schedule is silly, also walked back. Glad to have Dave along to carry the groceries. A lovely sunset and bright moon. GPS trace, 12 miles total.
Amy added 30 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Between us, Dave and I have made various tasty pasta, noodle and rice dishes over the past few weeks. Dave is also getting into making 'omelettes' with chickpea flour. I made a keto-friendly cauliflower rice dish with tofu and almond sauce. We both made bread, and Dave's was way better than mine even though it was the first time he ever made it and had to sub in some wholemeal flour cos we ran out of white. We used the bread for burgers, sandwiches, and with soup. I made a chocolate cake with blackberry coconut frosting. Just enough rice leftover for a sushi roll yesterday lunchtime (and a Gregg's not-sausage roll, the two best rolls).
Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
Homemade gyoza (mushroom and tvp filling). Homemade seitan. Coconut, white chocolate and raspberry cake with matcha coconut cream frosting.
Amy added 12 photos to https://i.amy.gy/madefood/
The caravan behind my flat got set on fire at midnight. Photos show the plume of smoke shortly after 6 firepeople put it out. I was too slow to capture the tower of flame. Drizzly walk to Dysart.
Amy added 11 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Misc sunrises from my window. This week has had bright clear mornings and rainy grim rest-of-days. Except for Thursday, which was clear all day, though freezing, and in the evening the sky and sea were vivid, almost glowing. I've never seen it so intense.
Amy added 27 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Weather was extremely indecisive, but I managed to make it out to the beach at Seafields during a gap in the rain in the evening. Pretty windy though.
Amy added 31 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
An afternoon sitting on the rocks at Seafields with my notebook for nanowrimo. Saw and heard lots of birds, and very few humans. Stayed until I was too cold to write. A walk through the woods in Beveridge Park, and out to Raith Lake, where again I sat and scribbled until my fingers froze. Continually impressed by and grateful for the presence of the sun here, even if it's only for a few hours a day.
Amy added 42 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Hike along the beach from Leven to Upper Largo, then inland, up Largo Law which was a slippery muddy vertical lurch. Said hi to sheeps on top. The sun came out at the perfect time, then disappeared for good. Lundin Links and the Largos are really cute. Nice beaches, cute holiday cottages. Lots of golf courses. GPS trace.
Amy added 129 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Dave's photos from the Leven to Largo Law hike.
Amy added 190 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
A run to Seafields (GPS trace) and some time sitting on the nearby beaches when the sun was out. Becoming convinced Fife has its own microclimate, although you've gotta take the opportunities when the clouds part cos they most certainly do not last.
Amy added 24 photos to https://i.amy.gy/2020-fife/
Another hike from Kirkcaldy to the Wemyss Caves, this time with an extra leg to Buckhaven. We did a guided tour of the Caves by a member of the Save Wemyss Caves Society which was super interesting in terms of ancient and local history. Learnt both about the Picts, and the local gangs.. 10 miles in total - see GPS trace. Also some pictures from the night before - an evening walk to the Seafields Tower, and takeaway from Koku Shi.
Reading about the Bosnian elections is inexplicably making me homesick for the Balkans. It's all the random pictures of Sarajevo and little mountain towns I guess. It's nice that something positive in politics might be happening somewhere in the world, anyway, for a change.
I have really enjoyed the DID WG not-face-to-face meetings this week. I still feel pretty lost in most of this, but looking back to almost two years ago when this started, I have learnt so much about so many topics I wasn't expecting to ever know anything about because of this work. I appreciate everyone in this group. Unending gratitude to manu and others at Digital Bazaar for supporting me - financially, educationally and emotionally - to work in this stuff in the first place. (It's been challenging at times, but not as emotionally fraught or generally stressful as the Social Web WG was. Maybe most of that is because I've grown since then, though, and also because it hasn't consumed my entire life like SWWG did..)
In recent weeks I'm getting slightly more interested in... stuff... tech stuff. And feeling more able to take things on than I have in long time. I think this means I might actually be recovering from the Great Burnout of 2017? But hard to test, because I'm also taking a bunch of holiday from my day job this month, and I haven't had to think about travelling/travel planning since August, so maybe that has freed up some areas of my brain that were busier than I realised before.
There is something extremely cursed about an ice cream van going past blaring its creepy music at 8pm in November.
Weather was all over the place this week, so no long walks but a few nearby beach wanderings. Less brain fog than I've felt in a long time. Persuaded Dave to make bread for the first time ever and it was better than any bread I have ever made. I made a cake. Wrote more javascript than is probably healthy: to fix bugs and add features to Credentials CG minutes publishing infrastructure; to help a friend send multiple hundreds of emails under a set of bizarre constraints for her job, using google appscript; to fix/update some DID spec respec plugins. Some DID spec editorial work. Thinking about policies and mitigations about redundancy, for the Co-op (the idea is to get this sorted before we need it, rather than suddenly having to deal with it in a time of crisis). Irretrievably behind on nanowrimo, but had some nice short writing sessions, including on the beach. Started crocheting a new wallet. Walked to Burntisland and back, fairly spur of the moment. Watched some good movies, including Sorry to Bother you and The Handmaiden.
Made it past 9k for nanowrimo, but not on track to hit 10k before the month ends. Lots of admin. Co-op staff welfare stuff. Walks around Seafields and Beveridge Park, Raith Lake. Made gyoza and seitan. Finished Dune Messiah, started Children of Dune Binged all of Dear White People.
Finished Dune. Managed to get the heating back on. Finished crocheting a hat just in time. Went to W3C TPAC breakout week sessions, which were amazing. Attended some Co-ops UK HR training, which was less than thrilling. Hiked from Kirkcaldy to the Wemyss Caves for a tour. NaNoWriMo begins. Not off to a great start, but eh.
Ran to Seafields. Attended the DID Working Group not-face-to-face meetings (a good time!). Fell ever further behind on nanowrimo, but kept plugging away. Invested in a bike helmet and lock... ...went cycling! With some random friendly locals, during a torrential downpour (not really random, it was a Greener Kirkcaldy community bike ride, but I was the only one who showed up). Attended a Social Web Incubator CG meeting and got some stuff done for a vocab collaboration with the DID WG.
Hiked from Leven to Upper Largo, up Largo Law, and back (Dave's photos). Hiked from Kirkcaldy to Burntisland along a new route (got groceries and took the train back) Walked to Dysart and back, twice, once at night which turned out to be clear and mild and was lovely. Made two potentially lifechanging decisions, but either could fall through at this point so I'm not telling you what yet. Spent a lot of time and energy on things mentioned in previous bullet point. Focussed on internal Co-op work. Poked around with sloph a bit. Watched all of Queen's Gambit, that was great. Slowly watching To The Lake. Started Dune Messiah. NaNoWriMo progresses slowly, too far behind to catch up now, but aiming to write more than 0 words per day. Did a bit of plotting, too. Some things on my street were set on fire. Cool. (Not. Not cool.)
When I'm at IRL W3C face-to-face meetings my dreams are full of the participants every night for like a week, and it took longer to get started but turns out online ones are the same.
I have written an uncharacteristic amount of javascript this week.