Sam's L33t Journal

There's been a cold going around, and the whole family has been under the weather this week.

I guess I can say that Julie's out at Jura (as of some time ago, the cause of all the chaos the last many weeks at this point), so she's looking for the next thing. That's about all I can say about it.

I can now say that I have had the opportunity to successfully defend myself (and my condo association) in court. I sure hope my work on that project is done now.

Next week, Julie is going to a BiotechBikers event in Girona, Spain. Seems like it will be quite a fun cycling trip.

Erica has become quite a skilled Ticket to Ride player, though she's still quite put out when I win.

I went out with Julie last night to Gufo, an Italian restaurant which has opened up in the old Loyal Nine space on Cambridge Street. Still sad that Loyal Nine is no longer with us, they were one of the town's greatest dining experiences all the way through the pandemic and only declined after. But I'm glad such a great space isn't staying vacant. The new place seems to have done some substantial renovations (extending the bar, adding a full-sized pizza oven to the cafe space, upgrading the covered porch (a thrown-together plywood-construction COVID era addition) with sturdier materials). Was really beautiful and the food was fantastic.

This was a pretty eventful week.

Mystery Hunt had a Greek gods meets American roadtrip theme, as the Meeting of Interplanetary Theorists demoted Pluto from "dwarf planet" to "insignificant cosmic debris" at kickoff, accidentally destroying the lord of the underworld, and the hunters had to escape the underworld, collect the shades of Pluto, and bribe the committee in order to fix what went wrong (all via puzzles, of course). I was able to help with a few puzzles, but it felt like relatively few this year. Also, my team completed hunt first, finding the coin early Monday morning (this one went long) and for the second time gaining the definite honor and dubious prize of writing next year's hunt. Which means I'll be able to try to help with that as well. I guess this year's outcome means we can win an extremely long hunt, our past win was an extremely short one. The last attempt turned out amazing, so with any luck we'll be able to do something great again.

On Thursday, I had my date in small claims court for the dispute between our condo association and a contractor. We attempted mediation, though I didn't expect that to lead to an early resolution, I really appreciate that Somerville District Court provides that option to all small claims litigants at no cost, the mediator seemed extremely skilled. Then we had our hearing before the clerk magistrate. After going through the whole process, the judge required (strongly advised?) that she continue the case so the plaintiffs could refile the paperwork to sue the association instead of me and our condo treasurer personally. So I'm no longer being sued, I think, but there's still a lawsuit that I need to handle, and it will probably require going back to court. If the case is continued, all the existing exhibits and testimony are still in the case record, so at least I probably won't have to repeat everything again. Really looking forward to having the matter resolved, but I suppose things will go at the pace they go. (I don't know which the magistrate finds more annoying: Pro se litigants that are totally unprepared or smart aleck pro se litigants who relish the opportunity. Obviously I'm in the latter column, fortunately/unfortunately.)

Thursday to Friday, Julie was out of town for an event in Miami. Which was planned on Wednesday (presented to me in a "got to go here are my flights" kind of way), and involved her flying down Thursday afternoon, attending the event, and catching a flight without any sleep beforehand early Friday morning. Startup life.

The weekend has been cold and quiet. I left my scarf at a cafe yesterday but managed to get it back today.

I had a very unusual detour on my way to work on Wednesday. I happened across an older woman who was very upset. Quickly became clear that she spoke almost no English and was lost. I then managed to make the situation even worse because despite my best attempts to clarify I heard her "Elm Street" as "Ames Street" and she heard my "Ames" as "Elm". (My ability to comprehend was so bad that I didn't even get it right first guess what language she was speaking: I guessed "Française?", and she responded "Portuguesa". From what I did understand of the conversation, I think she might have been from the Azores. I did try to show her the address on my phone to double-check, but in restrospect reading small text on someone else's phone when you're already tired and cold and sore and stressed is going to be pretty dicey.) I decided it would be best to retrace the trip by bus, since she'd already gotten more of a hike than she'd bargained for, and escorted her to where she was going. Fortunately the CT2 wasn't too long of a wait and was almost a direct trip at that point. I did my best to carry on a friendly conversation despite mutual comprehension of 1% or less. Anyways, I was very glad to have been of (eventual) help, I am always very glad to help visitors to Boston. I really admire someone who's willing to try to navigate a foreign city on only written directions, it takes a lot.

At home, contractor drama continues, though the repair is complete. I am bearing the fundamental inequality of leading these projects: It's our money but my time. Dubious upside: I get the opportunity to defend myself in court.

I took Erica to the Science Museum yesterday, took the day since it was a school holiday. In the evening, we went to the Night Shift Taproom at Lovejoy Wharf. The walk there from the Science Muesum is pretty great, it goes through North Point Park, across the North Bank Bridge, and then on the Harborwalk across the locks. Beautiful view. Night Shift had some great pizza, and I got to try their newest creation, a PB stout they made in collaboration with their neighbor, Teddie, another local favorite. It's really, really good.

I haven't posted in so long. I've been tired. Julie's been very busy. What else is new.

A concrete wall around my condo complex is crumbling, and it's gotten to the point where one of the fences on top of the wall has collapsed. So some of my time has been spent embarking on the organization of another major renovation project.

Generative AI stuff has me feeling the most like I'm not keeping up with technological developments that I've felt in my career. Feel like I'm in the wrong subfield. So often feel like I don't have the energy to learn things. At least I am excited to use the stuff. A whole lot of UI stuff is going to get real interesting over the next five years. And as a maintenance coder, I'm sure there will be a lot of incomprehensible stuff for me to debug for at least a few years.

This week, I'm visiting my parents and working from Cleveland over Erica's school break, while she gets some grandparent time.

I have had a little time to play some games. Did a playthrough of Omori, a little indie RPG that might be described as "Earthbound-esque surrealism crossed with devastating childhood trauma". It is quite a game, despite some flaws, and one where any spoilers really do mar the experience. I also played One Shot, a top-down puzzle game with some clever puzzles, a pretty fun bite-sized game. Most recently, started playing Citizen Sleeper, a text-heavy cyberpunk RPG that's really drawn me in.