Some stuff I learned today
Today was a highly educational day in which I learned many things. Here is a non-exhaustive list in roughly chronological order:
- Getting woken up by the sun pouring through your window is sometimes a good thing, like when you have a 09:00 meeting that you've forgotten to set an alarm for.
- Having a dog that you have to walk twice a day is a wonderful thing in the summer in Stockholm. It keeps you from spending all day in front of the computer. This morning's walk was especially sunny and nice, warm but not hot. There's a nice field near my house where I can take Rover off the leash if no one is around, and no one was around this morning. A creek runs through the middle of the field, and they just mowed along the banks last week, which apparently uncovered all sorts of interesting smells that Rover needed to spend a good long time investigating. I was strolling along, waiting for him to finish sniffing one spot before moving to the next, listening to a podcast, and appreciating the moment whilst I was in it. Life isn't always great, but sometimes it is, even if only for a few minutes.
- There was of course a bug in my caching
code, which occurred to me at some point along my walk. Several solutions also occurred to me, but they were all making the solution more complex and not simpler. I sat down at my computer when I got back from the walk, fired up my REPL, and tried to trigger the bug I though of. Indeed my darkest fears were realised as I added a new tag to an existing post and watched it not re-render. I had another idea that was simpler than my existing code, so I started messing around in the REPL until I was able to pull the problem apart a bit and see a way through. I'm not finished implementing the new idea yet, but when I am, I'll be sure to blog about it.
- I'm not going to make much progress on my reading (trying to finish Asimov's "Second
Foundation") if I don't stop playing Civilization V! I always forget just how long that game takes to play. 😅
- I'm really terrible at bowling. Like really really terrible. Which would be fine except I occasionally do something not terrible, which puts this unreasonable idea in my head that I should not be terrible, thus making my inevitable return to terribility (it's a word now!) a crushing disappointment.
- England may have completely ruined the Women's Euro
2022 for me. I watched Spain play Germany tonight, and what should have been an enjoyable watch as two good but very different teams went head to head was rendered unwatchable because there weren't eight goals and both teams made actual mistakes. To be fair, as an Arsenal fan, there was something too familiar about the way Spain dominated possession then just passed it around the penalty box without offering any real threat. Arsène Wenger called it "sterile domination", and oh my goodness have I had enough of it for one lifetime.
- I really need to start writing my blog in the morning, when I am not super tired.
