Sam's L33t Journal

Sandy Island was good. Despite some ups and downs in the weather and some packing mishaps (forgot my rain boots, Erica's didn't fit; Erica's socks were forgotten, though the few random pairs squirreled away in random bags got us through) the week was pretty good.


Got in some reading at camp:

Along the Saltwise Sea by "A. Deborah Baker" - Sequel to the YA book-within-a-book from Seanan McGuire's Middlegame. Was fun. Apparently there's a third book in the series now? I really need to read the sequel to Middlegame, and maybe reread the original.

Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow - Thriller relating the final caper of a freelance forensic accountant, first book in a series written in reverse chronological order, set in our cyberpunk present.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - My favorite book of the vacation by far. It's a quiet, small, science fiction novel with an unusual and really deep setting. It's a fun, light-hearted, contemplative book.

The Private Provision of Public Transport by Jonathan Richmond - An academic book by a late family friend. It's a set of case studies (organized by city), not popular nonfiction, so it's rather dry. The first few chapters are mostly about efforts to privatize regional blocks of bus transportation in various cities and the political conflict about that (plus Las Vegas, which always only had contract bus operators), the political conflicts described were on pretty familiar lines. The later chapters about New York and Miami focus more on the relations/conflicts between public transit and the regulation of jitney services (licensed or illegal, often serving and originating from immigrant communities) were more interesting.

after the quake by Haruki Murakami - An anthology, this collection of short stories are connected by theme and vague setting but not otherwise tightly tied together. Like much Murakami stuff, it's hard to describe. You'd like it if you liked stuff like After Dark, probably. (Trivia: The story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" here is (somewhat obviously, if you're familiar with both) one of the influences for Makoto Shinkai's Suzume.)

Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix - A prequel to Sabriel. If you like the rest of the series, you will probably like this book.


Reading aside, enjoyed spending time with Melissa and Simon and Elliott (who made it for the first few days this time) and my parents. Erica had a great time.

After we got home, it was time for laundry and packing for Erica's next trip. Went climbing with Erica Sunday morning, had dinner with Julie's parents Sunday afternoon, and Erica's off for her trip with them and her cousin Emilia this morning. Erica's first trip away from parents (she's had some overnights before, but that's different). Seems to be going well so far but, well, it's a big adventure. They're headed up to Canada this week, to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Today is my birthday. Last prime number before I'm middle aged (by my standards, anyways, it's just neater to divide things by two decade increments).

Second trip of Erica's February break last week was amazing! Was great to see Melissa and Elliott and Simon. Simon is standing and crawling and while he's still a pretty quiet baby, he's definitely getting more communicative. (Not talking for real yet, but definitely making good use of a small set of words and hand-signs, and just generally being more expressive.) Erica had two overnights with her aunt and uncle, so I got in some date nights with Julie.

I took Erica to the children's museum one day, and we saw the aquarium and the Baltimore Museum of Art with (different subsets of) the larger group. The aquarium really reminded me of the one in Boston. Not a coincidence, turns out the New England Aquarium was designed by the same architect a few years earlier.

We took Melissa out for dinner at Liora, which was absolutely amazing. (Simon and Elliott missed that one because Simon had a bit of a stomach bug that day, so will have to make it up another time. Definitely wouldn't hesitate to make a return trip.) Had a lot of other good food, including some home cooking.

I really enjoyed Baltimore. Our hotel was just next to the Johns Hopkins campus. It was pretty and walkable, and the transit seemed pretty nice. (In particular, one of the free circulator bus routes ran frequently from the campus area to downtown.) Melissa's neighborhood is pretty cool, her place is really nice.

The trip back was a bit exhausting, the flight was a bit delayed and we got in on the late side. I got so scattered on the way home that I managed to leave my phone in the cab. I'm usually pretty good about avoiding that, even when I'm juggling stuff. The driver was very fortunately kind enough to backtrack a mile or so and return it. (I activated the device finder feature, so presumably he noticed when it started making plaintive lost-phone noises.) Very close call.

After the short week where we got back from vacation, had a week where Julie was away for conference travel, MIT Mystery Hunt, and another week another conference for Julie. So I've been busy and not getting to write.

Mystery Hunt was pretty fun, though it ran long. But there were a lot of innovative twists and overall the structure was interesting. More detail later when the solutions are published, if I remember.

Julie's birthday was mid-Hunt, so we (all of us, including Erica this time) went out for dinner afterwards to celebrate, Monday evening at Puritan & Company in Inman. The restaurant was basically empty on that drizzly Monday evening, but the meal was amazing. Erica split the steak with me (I love it when she's willing to try something from the full menu instead of getting a plain pasta or similar upscale kid's meal fare), we had apple Paris-Brest for dessert. As a dessert drink, I got the bar to make me a Coffee's for Closers, a Fred Yarm creation which I'd been really wanting to try but hadn't gotten to previously. (Seemed a bit unusual to order off-menu just anywhere, though it is three-equal-parts-ish, where the -ish is an additional egg.) Was as amazing as I'd hoped, and my hopes were very high.

I've done a ton of organizational work in the house with Erica's assistance over the past few weeks. Installed more storage closets in the garage, replaced the pressed-into-service-as-toy-bins Pack 'n Play crib and playpen with more compact toy-bin shelves. Sent off several boxes of hand-me-down baby toys and books to my baby nephew, Simon. The Pack 'n Plays were gifted to our new-ish (new, but we got even newer neighbors on the other side just recently) neighbors who have an even newer baby (born shortly after the turn of the year). I recall from Erica's tiny years that having a few extra good places to put the kid down was really convenient, pretty sure at some points we were running three crib equivalents in a two-bedroom condo. So I'm happy to see those put to good use.

The weather this week has been mild. Last evening I was loosening my jacket. Felt like the wrong season except for the bit where it was pitch black at five. Overnight things cooled a bit and we got a scattering of precipitation (various types) and the morning was several flavors of damp. Large fluffy flurries descended leisurely later in the day, without much sticking.

Google announced (and implemented) layoffs today. Not great. I'm still employed, at least.

Thanksgiving holiday was beautiful if brief. Was great seeing my family, especially my baby nephew, Simon, who turned one on Thanksgiving day. There were flight delays in both directions, but nothing too painful. I got a date night out with Julie, which was nice.

DeepMind released a Stratego AI that does extremely well on games of partially hidden information. OpenAI released a large language model trained to do natural language response and creative writing tasks that would have seemed completely unbelievable for computers to manage a decade (maybe even just a few years) ago.

This week was very busy and next week looks to be tiring, too. I hurt my shoulder out of the blue last Thursday (literally tweaked a muscle just raising my arm without any load, like my shoulder just freaked out and decided to injure itself for no reason). It's not so bad now and getting gradually better, but it's the sort of injury that's always most aggravating when I'm trying to sleep.

Erica went to a friend's birthday yesterday. Today, Julie went out with Erica, and I went to the movies to see The Menu (plus the usual laundry etc.).

Still playing a lot of Arena with the latest new set, The Brother's War. Mostly been playing this deck, which unlike most of my decks is brewed from scratch instead of flagrantly net-decked. It's fun.

Back in town, the school year is once again in swing, work grinds forward.

Last weekend was a long weekend for Labor Day. Had a pretty good time. Took Erica to Legoland Discovery Center on Friday. On Sunday, we went to the children's museum, with poke lunch and taiyaki ice cream for an afternoon snack.

Today, there was an Alphabet Workers Union picnic in the park in the afternoon and a fall fun fair organized by the PTA at Erica's school in the evening.

Erica's taking the lead on more reading, those literacy skills are definitely coming along. Cool to see some of those early reading favorites get a second go around now that she can tackle them herself.

I've been playing a lot of Magic Arena with the new set out (Domanaria United, a return to Magic's oldest setting). This one is really fun to play in sealed, and the new standard constructed environment after rotation (when old sets leave the collection of cards allowed in standard) is pretty interesting as well. That standard environment is this time swirling around a core of black, since that color didn't lose many of its powerhouse rares (a two-mana 3/2 recurring threat that draws cards, a guaranteed three-for-one, a 3/3 for three that gains life and disrupts your opponent's recurring threats, a flexible boardwipe that also gains a bunch of life) and adds to the mix two powerhouse mythics (an old favorite three-mana planeswalker and an aptly-named monster that produces game-winning advantage in short order). But those aren't the only good options, a new set means many new possibilities to explore. The sloshing about of play and counter-play in the metagame is also pretty interesting in itself.

The news is all crazy and I let so much go by without comment because I can't find time/energy to write. The whole saga of (as Opening Arguments cleverly calls it) NARA-Lago continues to be politically and legally just the craziest shit. I do hope more of the truth of why Trump was absconding with classified documents comes out, the only predictable thing about this is that the truth is sure to be stupider and stranger than what I would've predicted on my own.

Time keeps on slipping.

Last weekend, we took Erica to two friends' birthday parties on Saturday. The weather was super hot. On Sunday, we went to George's Island and took a tour of the fort there.

The last week of camp was busy. We went to Erica's camp show on Friday, which parents were invited to attend in person for the last week.

This week is the start of my trip home to Cleveland with Erica to visit my parents and brother. She's done solo travel with Julie, and I've done weeks alone at home with her, but this is my first time traveling with just Erica. Flew out yesterday, and the trip went fine, despite all of this weekend's chaos on the T. I somehow managed to forget Erica's car seat, but my dad was able to buy a booster seat at a Walmart near the airport.

Today, we went to RTA's "Touch a Truck" kids event in Cleveland's Public Square, then went to the Maltz Museum for the Marc Chagall children's art exhibit and a crafting event run by Upcycle Parts Shop. Then we had burgers at home for dinner, and potato salad with herbs from the garden.

Last week I went to the west coast for the Kotlin at Google summit, an internal conference. That was pretty cool as a Kotlin beginner. To be a little more prepared, I read Kotlin in Action cover to cover on the plane there. I stayed at Google's new Bay View campus. The conference was at the Sunnyvale office a few miles away, and one of the mornings I biked there along the Bay Trail. The whole place has a surreal atmosphere, the landscape is beautiful and the architecture has all these weird megastructures (especially at nearby NASA Ames). The Google offices in the Valley are certainly great places to work, but so remote. Everything in the South Bay is so spread out.

I'm excited about more Kotlin adoption at work, it seems like the good stuff about Java without the bad stuff about Java. And it seems fun to work in. Java's the world's okayest programming language, widely useful, but pretty low in fun.

Travel also gave me a bit of time to read Goldenhand, a recent entry in Garth Nix's "Old Kingdom" series.

The next few weeks my schedule is a bit shifted early to deal with early camp pickup. Julie's handling the mornings.

Another post that's many posts because I don't get around to things. Let's see...

Father's Day was last weekend, and Erica planned quite an exciting day for us (including drawing out a map of the day's adventures). We went to a yakitori restaurant at Assembly for lunch, headed down to the Boston location of Taiyaki NYC for ice cream, and then went to the Children's Museum for some family time (where Erica and Julie enjoyed making origami by the Japanese House, Julie's really good at it).

Erica went to climbing camp at Boston Bouldering Project this week and really enjoyed it.

Today, Julie and Erica left early in the morning to visit Julie's family, giving me a few days of blissful alone time. (I'll be taking kid in turn and visiting my parents at the end of the summer.) I went to the aquarium by myself today (very relaxing), played a bit of Ingress, had some nice food.

Transit in Boston is currently completely screwed by a construction site disaster at the Haymarket Garage demolition partially closing several T routes and service cuts by the short-staffed MBTA in the aftermath of several accidents. At least the weekend closures of one of the airport tunnels has been delayed. First train from Union no-showed at the scheduled time this morning, causing Julie some stress. At least they made it to the airport.

Watching the January 6th hearings has been really interesting. Thought a lot of it would be old news, but there are still new things coming out of the investigation. For example, it was news to me that Trump was far enough in a plan to replace the head of the DOJ with someone who would go along with his "just declare the election corrupt" plan (to the point of prematurely referring to Clark at the "Acting Attorney General" in WH logs) and that he was dissuaded by the prospect of mass resignations. Also notable that several members of Congress explicitly asked for Presidential pardons. (Gaetz in particular was especially eager to get a blanket pardon for absolutely everything for all time.) That last impeachment may have actually done some good in preventing a post-coup pardon spree. Certainly would have been a bad look.

The rest of politics was mostly a cavalcade of the most extreme conservative activism in Supreme Court rulings: Limiting people's recourse if they are not informed of their Miranda rights, declaring gun restrictions like those in NY and MA unconstitutional (and basically all gun restrictions presumptively unconstitutional, possibly including the very minimal bipartisan bill just passed by the Senate), requiring that state money go to religious schools if charter schools are allowed (with that if next up on the chopping block), and of course, overturning Roe v. Wade.

Coercing someone into carrying a pregnancy to term for any reason is tyrannical. The restrictions enabled by the Dobbs ruling will lead to egregious violations of privacy and liberty. They will also require people to wait to no benefit until impending medical emergencies become actual ones. (Or even until actual medical emergencies reach a final, fatal resolution.) They will require people to take on risks that far exceed the baseline risk of pregnancy (e.g. being forced to put off treatment for cancer or other serious disease). They will prevent women from accessing necessary medical care after miscarriages, and require them to carry to term pregnancies that are not viable. They will restrict access to birth control and fertility treatments.

It's a disaster, and Thomas's concurrence with the ruling makes it clear that they're coming after Obergefell and Lawrence and even Griswold next. He makes it clear that he wants to get rid of the idea of substantive due process entirely. The originalist view leads to a very anemic version of constitutional protections, protecting just the liberty people from centuries past enumerated, as enjoyed by just the people they considered worthy of consideration. Except it's not even that. Judges are generally not historians, and we're ruled not just by originalism but shitty originalism. (e.g. it's not just interpreting the law as if it were still 1791 or 1868 or whatever (which it's not), but specifically a cherry-picked version of that which flatters the biases of J Thomas et al.)

Kid bedtime changes are doing well. Still high intensity, but at least we're getting more sleep. Work has been high intensity, too, but overall going well. Had a nice team week onsite at our office for the wider Android Stylus Team.

Anyways, I keep putting off writing and then trying to reconstruct my thoughts instead of just, you know, write about what's going on, so skipping over a lot of things to about the present.

We're currently all in Cleveland for kid's April break, visiting my parents, and it's been 2.5 years since we were last all here. Nice to be here for Passover. And my sister, Melissa, is visiting with her family, too. So I get to spend some time with my new baby nephew, Simon, which is really great!

Travel went smoothly. Nice to take the new Green line connection on our way to the airport. We ran into one of Eris's school friends in the terminal, which was cool. COVID situation still looks very alarming, though how bad is still TBD. At least we escaped getting sick pre-trip. (Very much hope during as well!) I'm very glad to be here, but also feeling very exhausted. Travel is always pretty tiring for me, and I was pretty tired to begin with.

All right, I guess I'll loop back to some recollection:

My indie tabletop RPG group has been playing Sig: City of Blades (a Blades in the Dark-style with a setting that's a bit of of off-brand Planescape). It's been fun so far.

I've been able to have some fun playing Magic: Arena, though I can't build all the decks I want to and I've been perma-stuck at Platinum rank in constructed.

I finished watching Eighty-Six, and thought it was pretty good. Doesn't overreach with it's ending, but I think it earned a little dwelling on its epilogues.

So we're travelling for the winter holidays and visiting Julie's family for the first time in two years. If I'd made the plans in December rather than November, they probably would have been different. But ultimately I couldn't put Eris through the last-minute cancellation of her holiday plans after all she's been through so far. So it's down to vaccines and masks and tests and hope. At least we're not going to Cleveland.

It has been very wonderful seeing Julie's family, including meeting the twins in person for the first time. We're staying with Julie's parents (who bought a new house very close to Julie's sister, Kristin), and Kristin and Jimmy are hosting some of Jimmy's family. We had a nice Christmas dinner, and celebrated the twins' birthday, and went to a drive-through holiday lights event at the Dallas Zoo.

I'm trying to relax a bit before I return to town and start on my new team at work. I did bring my work laptop this time (I usually don't) in case our return ends up delayed.