cariad.fyi

Sunday, October 27, 2024

What did I do?

πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» Had my first job interview since I started job hunting earlier this year! And it was cringe as fuck. The interviewer moaned about his job, snarked at my questions, derided me for using PostgreSQL instead of NoSQL for a job that couldn’t have benefited from using NoSQL, and–in the end–chose to ghost me rather than let me know I wasn’t a good culture fit. And thank fuck. I’d rather shoot myself than be a good culture fit under him.

πŸ“ Updated cariad.fyi to support embedded images. If I’ve got my HTML srcset and Hugo templating correct then it should download only the most appropriate image for your display’s pixel density to minimise traffic.

πŸ“• I love my Rhodia A5 journal and Lamy fountain pen, but the book’s too big to toss around and write on-the-go, and I’m paranoid about fountain pens leaking in my bag. I picked up a Rhodia A6 notebook and some Paper Mate Flair pens to lug around. It sounds a bit obvious with hindsight, but 0.7mm ink is way too thick for A6. Live and learn, folks.

Where did I go?

πŸ–οΈ My landlord needed to drop in and fix a leak in my bathroom, so I took a day out along Exmouth seafront.

πŸ₯š Breakfast at The Octagon! My first visit since the refurbishment, too. The staff were really friendly and they’ve got plenty of vegetarian options.

A photograph of the view of Exmouth beach from inside The Octagon.
Exmouth beach from The Octagon (Wednesday 23rd October, 2024)

πŸ§‘β€πŸ¦½β€βž‘οΈ I’d love to recommend The Octagon to everyone, but I didn’t see any step-free entry to the building. For accessible breakfast with plenty of room to manoeuvre, Ocean’s still the place to go.

🍺 The new owner of the old Mickey’s Beach Bar has started clearing it out. For legal purposes, I have no idea who the new owner is and when they’re planning to open, but I sincerely hope they learn from Michael’s mistakes. Either have bar food or don’t; deciding night-by-night just pisses everyone off. And good lord, charge for the audience you have, not the audience you want. No-one in Exmouth will pay Β£15 for a hot dog. Fleece the tourists if you want, but we’re a town of unemployed hospitality workers when the sun goes down. Good luck to the mysterious new owner!

A photograph of the old Mickey's Beach Bar and Restaurant at Sideshore on Exmouth seafront. There's a temporary barrier across the entrance, and a skip being filled by two workers.
Tearing out the old Mickey’s Beach Bar and Restaurant (Wednesday 23rd October, 2024)

πŸ₯Ύ I headed east up the South West Coast Path until the mud became treacherous. Apart from one knob who took offence at me stepping aside to let him past of all things, it was lovely! I dipped close to a couple of agoraphobic anxiety attacks, especially up at the top of the world, but I survived.

A photograph of the Exe Estuary and fields on the South West Coast Path near Exmouth.
The South West Coast Path near Exmouth (Wednesday 23rd October, 2024)

🚀 Exmouth Lifeboat Station is still wrapped up while the roof is replaced.

A photograph of Exmouth Lifeboat Station. It's wrapped in scaffolding and sheets while the roof is replaced.
Exmouth Lifeboat Station (Wednesday 23rd October, 2024)

What did I eat?

πŸ₯š Eggs Florentine and espresso at The Octagon. Gorgeous!

🍲 Alex made a slow-cooked beef stew and noodles, and I’ve reminisced about it at least three times a day since.

πŸ§‹ I’m still loving the Holland & Barrett Nu26 diet. I wish it was a bit more filling, but it still kicks the snot out of SlimFast.

What did I drink?

🧊 Bumble and Sea at the start of the South West Coast Path in Exmouth sells cans, not bottles, of water. Drop-for-drop it’s more expensive than a bottle of water in town, but big appreciation for the recyclability. And they’re proper cold from the fridge, too!

What did I learn?

⛓️ I got my Blockchain Specialisation certificate from the University at Buffalo! I went into the course believing I already understood the fundamentals of Blockchain, but I was wrong. Smart Contracts especially don’t actually work the way I assumed they do. It was fun!

πŸ“ I spotted a punnet of strawberries branded with the “Dyson Farming” logo. It looked like the same typeface as Dyson-the-vacuum-cleaner-brand, so I checked it out and yep: they’re one and the same. They have a 26-acre farm in Lincolnshire where they grow strawberries with modern technology and modern techniques, sustainably and out of season. It’s really interesting, and I’d be hyped to learn more if the Brexit hypocrite James wasn’t at the helm. I don’t want to sink my time into another scam.

A photograph of a punnet of strawberries. The box is branded with the 'Dyson Farming' logo.
Dyson Farming strawberries in the Co-op (Wednesday 23rd October, 2024)

🌍 The Earth is flat.

A photograph of a traffic bollard on Exmouth seafront. Graffiti on it reads 'The Earth is Flat'.
The roundabout at the end of Exmouth seafront (Wednesday 23rd October, 2024)

I played…

πŸƒ I finally won a game of Balatro, and that was the last hit I needed to ease off the addition.

βœ‰οΈ I’ve given up on Kind Words 2. I love the idea, and it was incredibly fulfilling for a few days; until the speedrunners took over. I updated my review to a not-recommendation then uninstalled.

I listened to…

🏨 The Hazbin Hotel soundtrack.

🎡 Aerosol by Thegur90 makes me feel a bit sad.

🎡 Emunator’s lo-fi cover of Chicory’s The Town of Luncheon makes me feel very sad.

🎡 Mayday! by Sparkbird makes me feel.

I watched…

πŸ¦β€β¬› Crows dropping either snails or nuts on Exmouth’s seafront road to break into them.

🏨 I finished the first season of Hazbin Hotel and bloody hell; entirely unironically, it’s probably the best TV show I’ve seen this year! The music’s beautiful. The characters are heartbreaking. The plot has a tension you’d honestly never expect from a first glance. I laughed, I cried, but mostly, I laid awake at night thinking about it.

🧐 Hot on the heels of Hazbin Hotel, I started watching Helluva Boss. I hated it. It’s messy, ableist, inconsistent and edgy without any of the depth, beauty or smarts of Hazbin. It’s noise without a message.

πŸ›³οΈ In February 2023, Alex and I celebrated our ten-year anniversary with our first holiday together; a week up-and-down the western European coast on P&O’s Iona. Anyway, it sucked. Holy shit, it sucked. If I start getting into it now then I’ll never stop; so it just sucked. The only saving graces were the acrobatic shows; the music, atmosphere and story-telling blew me away. I didn’t have high hopes given the rest of the ship, but those shows moved me. My favourite by far was Rise and, again, if I start talking about how incredible it was then I’ll never stop. I’m only mentioning it now, eighteen months later, because I spotted myself watching Rise in the background of Travel Blog Jamie’s vlog of that cruise.

A screenshot of a YouTube video uploaded by Travel Blog Jamie. A live acrobatic show is being performed onboard a cruise ship. An orange arrow is painted on to point me out in the audience.
That’s me watching Rise on P&O’s Iona (February 2023)

🧐 Jamie says “there’s really no story to talk of.” We’re enemies now.

☒️ I had my annual re-watch of Special Bulletin. It’s a high-tension, War-of-the-Worlds-style news bulletin report on a hostage situation, and it just escalates, then escalates, then escalates. Every year, I assume it won’t make me cry any more. Every year, I’m wrong.

🏹 This D&D player DIED to a gazebo?

πŸ€– This android with artificial muscles is more Westworld than Westworld in the end.

πŸš€ I bloody love Howard Day’s Star Trek renders, and the USS Arges makes me pine for a classic movie we never got.

🧱 Major Lennox answered with his life!

πŸ‹ If, like me, your brain’s wired to cry at beautiful paintings and rousing music, Oregon’s Only Slightly Exaggerated tourism ad is for you.

I’m perturbed by…

πŸŒ– I fitted a blackout blind last week. It fell down, and I can’t figure out how to make it stick. So, my bedroom never gets dark and I’m feeling a bit loopy from sleep deprivation.

πŸ’§ My landlord couldn’t fix the leak in the bathroom. I’m worried it’s going to drag on. The apartment on top of mine has been leaking down for years. The last time I had a leak in my apartment, my water bill crept up to Β£300/month. I just know this is going to suck.

πŸ’₯ The owners of the kebab shop behind my bedroom spent a year working noon ’til 4am refurbishing the place. Now it’s up for sale again. I’m going to struggle to sleep on another building site.

What’s coming up?

πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» I’ve got another job interview!

πŸ€— I’m looking forward to meeting my Fedi-friend Martin for coffee and computing!

I need to remember…

β˜‘οΈ …to be mindful of the moment where art crosses from fulfilling to obsession.

β˜‘οΈ …journal more things, more often.

β˜‘οΈ …not wait until the last minute to take my CBD. Give it twenty minutes to work through my system, then go to bed.