Weeknotes 2024 W08 W09

Spring is just around the corner, I can sense it. New buds and flowers are beginning to sprout and the birds are busy chattering away with the gossip of a new season.

With the undeniable change around the corner, the urge to clean becomes too great to resist.

Out with the old, in with the new

I took delivery of a new MacBook Air over a week ago. The new M1 chip is blazing fast. Web pages seem to load before clicking on a link. 11ty builds so quickly I have to double check for changes. To Hell with the Doherty Threshold!

Migrating files across was anything but fast. It turns out I’m as much a digital hoarder as I am a physical one. This gave me an opportunity to try out the drive I’ve setup on my local network. Both computers are now clean of files which I intend to keep that way. I also migrated my browser bookmarks to my website –Focused– which is also set as my default new browser tab. I’m hoping this will help create some meaningful focus and distraction. Its a simple unordered list at the moment using the default template but have plans to make it more pleasing to the eye and play with the page hierarchy.

When nature calls

• I went to see Perfect Days the new Wim Wimners film about a Tokyo public toilet cleaner and his struggles with maintaining his peaceful lifestyle.
• The unique public toilets featured in the film were designed by a group of Japanese architects, there’s even an organised tour to visit them.
• The theme of Japanese toilet culture reminded me of Japan’s toilet God, kawaya kami and other toilet themed yōkai.

Off topic

• Luke Hay and I traveled up to London to view some in-person testing labs. I live blooped our travels on Mastondon, blog post to follow.
• There’s been a lot of excited chatter about Patterns Day at Clearleft headquarters and on the socials. I for one am very excited! If you haven’t got your ticket for this coming Thursday you’re in luck… there’s still tickets available and I can save you 10% on your ticket! Use the discount code JOINBENJAMIN at the checkout.
• I’ve managed to maintain a rather good with learning Japanese this fortnight. Duolingo has played a big part in keeping the daily habit but I do wonder if the overall gamification is a tad intense. Maintaining a streak, leagues and leaderboards, and time-limited point bonuses sometimes feel like a distraction to the primary goal of learning a new language. After a few lessons I’m left asking myself a question: Am I really making proper progress or falling victim to Goodhart’s Law?