Summary for August, 2024

My 10 year old just finished a week of Dungeons & Dragons camp, and tonight at dinner, he declared “I’m autistic *and* I have ADHD — I’m multiclassing!” Adorable.

Was tucking in my son for bed tonight, and we got to chatting about Dyson Spheres. Eventually, the conversation led to him stating matter of factly, “well. Dinosaurs were pretty O.P., though.”

Side note… my boy is 10.

Started watching “Batman: Caped Crusader” over the weekend. Excellent spiritual successor to “Batman: The Animated Series.” The art style and overall vibe are very reminiscent of BTAS, but I wish they had used the original soundtrack.

Infusion 11 of 12 today. Chemotherapy is almost over!

Built a custom home control panel for my home theater, and just finished the hardware. It’s an ESP32-S3 board with an integrated 5” display, 3.7V battery with a USB-C charging module and voltage step-up to 5V, and custom 3D printed case.

I am very pleased with the hardware. I need to sand off a rough spot on the case, but that’s it. I hadn’t soldered in years, and have discovered that having a pronounced tremble makes it maddening!

Features: - Activity selection (Apple TV, Plex streamer box, gaming PC) - Individual control of all lights and fans - Scene selection - Control of my “magic poster” - Display of “now playing” artwork for all activities - Context-aware remote control

Still some kinks to work out on the software side, but once I get it all wrapped up, I’ll post some photos and maybe a video. #nerdery #openHASP #HomeAutomation

Rather than building out JSONL content by hand for the openHASP configuration, I wrote a Python library that I can use to define everything in code, including attaching automations for Home Assistant. Simply write some code, run a script, and it outputs the openHASP configuration in JSONL, and Home Assistant yaml files for automations etc.

AOC is a boss. I love her so much.

Also, my wife is getting a birthday trip to the emergency room tonight. So, yeah, not the finest of birthdays. I’ll be very happy to put 2024 behind us come January. Sigh. 😔

Update on my wife. We arrived at the ER around 9 PM. After a few hours they brought her back and ran a bunch of tests. She was admitted around 6 AM. I went home to get a little sleep, but am headed back to the hospital shortly. She is in good hands and I’m hopeful she will be discharged today. 🙏🏼

Discharged! Back at home and getting some much-needed rest. Whew.

I’m on a few betas for apps that provide a unified ux for news feeds, Mastodon, Bluesky, and more. It’s exciting to see the vision we had for Together (alltogethernow.io) getting more mainstream. Still all read-only, sadly.

Just got to the end of a Zoom call and instinctually typed ":qa!" ... #VimBrain

I’m pretty excited to vote for Kamala Harris. She would not have been my choice, but it’s tough to think of an option that the Cheeto King would hate losing to more.

I don’t know if I should be happy or sad for Jack Doohan. Seems like a good dude. He deserves to be in F1, but hoooo-boy // gestures wildly at Alpine //

🍀 🏈 🐝 🐝 🐝 🏈 🍀

“Run the bawwwl” better end up on a white and gold t-shirt as soon as possible.

Extremely happy with a P3 / P5 finish in Zandvoort for the Scuderia. After two days of disappointment, it’s much better than expected. Still dissatisfied with the development of the car this season. #F1

Also delighted for Lando, who had a “simply lovely” performance 😏 McLaren is going to regret those team orders that took points from Lando… #F1

Had the pleasure of taking my son to see Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away” at the lovely Ford Theater last night. Such a great film, and seeing it with my boy under the stars on a perfect LA evening was joyous.

Finally got around to starting “Shōgun.” Really impressed!

Finished watching “Shōgun” last night. What a fantastic show! I love how deftly they highlighted the cultural divide between eastern and western culture, especially as it relates to loyalty, life and death, and personal sacrifice.

While customs like seppuku have faded, the underlying value have not. Eastern values of self-sacrifice for the good of community vs. independence of western culture shines brightly even now. See: communal response to COVID prevention in Japan vs. the US.

After over a year since my wife began her cancer journey, today she completed her final visit to the chemotherapy clinic, ringing the ceremonial bell with the family. We can now say that she has kicked cancer right in its stupid, stupid ass. I am so happy and grateful that this chapter is over. 🙏🤟

Hell yes, the Canes are looking good! Cam Ward is the truth. Please, please let this finally be the year that we don’t wet the bed down the stretch.

Alright, College Football fans, it’s time for QUAD BOX! Oh, and it’s time for Sheamus! Go Jackets 🐝