It's the last day of October. And Halloween, I guess. If that means something to you.

The world:

• Local politics still depresses me. Let's not talk about it today.
• On the upside, local Covid numbers are getting better, hopefully a trend that continues through Christmas. We're actually starting to inch closer and closer to the recommended 5% positivity rate! Though we'll see how the lowering of alert levels affects the numbers in the coming week.
• Big news in the tech world this week is how Facebook has rebranded as "Meta", which is personally a bit "meh" for me. I mean, they're still terrible for humanity in general.

Links of interest:

• What we can learn from "_why", the long lost open source developer. I was never big on Ruby, but I did read through _why's poignant guide back in the day, it was a joyous way to learn a language.
• 136 facts every web dev should know before they burn out and turn to landscape painting or nude modelling. Surprisingly deep. These aren't limited to technical issues either, a number are about project management, startups, organizations, and other such minutiae.
• Dan Luu writes about how it's useful to have a willingness to look stupid.
• Julia Evans writes about how to get useful answers to your questions.
• The other day I shared some screenshots of Merlin Mann's Wisdom Project, but I thought it would be useful to link to the whole text as well.
• Twitter thread: Gurwinder shares "40 concepts you should know". Note his caveat at the end: "As usual, don't assume these concepts are all necessarily true; they were chosen not for their accuracy but because they provoke curiosity."
• Tago Fabic writes about Key Things he learned after moving into a Software Architect role. Proud to say the author is a former mentee.

Visit the Links page for more links of interest.

My stuff:

• I wrote quite a few words about our Covid hospital stay. And then a little bit more. Hopefully I can move on now.
• Still sketching daily, and in fact I managed to maintain the streak all week! I should finish the Inktober 2021 set by today as well. Here's the All-Spark:

#Inktober #inktober2021 #sketchdaily #Transformers Day 27 Spark 300/365

Oct. 27, 2021, 5:33 p.m. View post Close

• Watching:
  • Actually haven't watched much of anything this week. I'm halfway through Dune (2021), will probably try to get through the rest of it this week. Started watching the new season of The Simpsons, something I still keep up out of habit. Actually also started watching Saturday Night Live eps as background watching.
• Gaming:
  • The regular fare:
    • Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Tales of Symphonia, both ongoing and hoping I can finish them this year.
    • Daily fighting games ongoing on weeknights: Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter V!
    • My daily card games: Eternal and Magic Arena. Been having trouble grinding in Eternal, but I did manage to hit mythic on Arena just in the nick of time!
    • A little bit of Super Metroid here and there.
  • Streaming Innistrad Midnight Hunt limited is done. This week, previews for the next set, Innistrad: Crimson Vow. have kicked off.
• Reading: Still reading The Conjugal Dictatorship by Primitivo Mijares. Slow and steady; I suspect I can finish it this week, if not the next.
• Trivia team: still bereft of quiz nights, we are just enjoying crosswords on the regular.

This coming week:

• I believe Eternals is coming out this week, but since we still don't have cinemas (or maybe we do and I'm not willing to go), it may be a while before I can watch it. Might be able to see Shang Chi in a couple of weeks though!