Good night at Ezra Pound with the boys, snacking on antipasto and pasta from the neighbouring spaghetti store, who are happy to bring the food into the bar. Then to Lainey’s house on Thursday for takeaway with Traveller and Hooi. Jack practised guitar after eating, then he and Eliza jammed for a while, making use of a keyboard loaned to Lainey by a friend. Lilian had her year 12 ball on Friday night and looks so grown up!
Bought and installed a Nest outdoor camera to monitor Bailey. Out at Kanpai Yakiniku for dinner with Traveller on Friday night and got a notification; watched the live feed to see him trying to squeeze through the gate! Much laughter as we used the microphone to tell him to stop. Home after Korean desserts to bring him inside. Quick trip to Bunnings on Monday morning to buy some materials to block the gaps in the gate and prevent this from happening again.
Apart from that, a fairly quiet weekend. Did a long walk around North Lake with Bailey, Jack commenting that it felt like being in Breath of the Wild. And had the family over for Sunday brunch. Watched Spiderman No Way Home. And made some progress with books and online management courses.
Family brunch on Sunday at Imperial Court. Was prompted afterwards to update my review, likening Phylis to the Soup Nazi of Seinfeld fame. Good dim sum if you bring a sense of humour and don’t get offended by her brusqueness.
Spent Monday with Jack. We dropped the car off for a service, then caught the bus to Garbo for haircuts and to sign up for the library at the Melville Civic Centre, then ate an early lunch at Miss Maud’s before doing a spot of shopping. Made shaking beef for dinner because the watercress looked so good.
Kids back to school on Tuesday. Had a great bike ride around Bibra Lake in the morning, and applied for a few roles. Lots of irons in the fire. I’ve even signed up for some management courses as that’s one skill I feel I lack. We’ll see how it goes. Traveller over for lamb and red sauce pasta; she regalled us with tales of a new Marvel TV series, but it’s all hush-hush. Enjoyed a few glasses of red. Nice evening.
Returned home from dinner on Thursday night to somehow find Bailey in the garage, even though I swore I had put him outside before he left. Phone call in bed the following morning; Bailey was out on the street. So first mystery solved only to be replaced by another. Had he figured out how to squeeze through the gate? We tried in vain to get him to do just that, but even his favourite dried liver treats (crack for dogs according to the veterinarian) wouldn’t tempt him to attempt the feat. I suspect that Noah, a mischevious boy from up the street, came over on Thursday evening and again on Friday morning to ask Jack to play basketball, and had opened the gate and let Bailey out. Might get a camera.
Took a train to West Leederville with Jack to meet Dzung at Besk. Great beer, and the steak tartare, cheeseburger, gnochi and bone marrow were all top class. Returned via the city where I picked up my library card and borrowed a stack of books. Olive Ketteridge and Recursion for me. Bought some Telegram coffee beans too, and refreshed ourselves with bubble tea before training it home again (before which Jack walked into a pole while not looking where he was going). Did some reading in the afternoon after Jack signed up for GoodReads so he can share his progress with me. Hopefully that’ll spark the bug in him; he needs to improve his English grades at school.
Spent yesterday at Treetop Adventures in Yanchep, with family visiting from Hong Kong and one of their family friends. Lots of fun; the black course was challenging and I feel a bit worse for wear today. Battered and bruised with aching muscles. I rely too much on my arms to counteract my poor sense of balance.
Caught up with Traveller and a few friends for dinner at Long Chim in the evening. It was great to see her and hear about life in London.
The “Mazes for Programmers” book arrived today, so I’m mooching through that while looking out at a rain-drenched garden. Wife and kids are out at brunch with their cousins this morning; last day in Perth for them today before returning to a one-week hotel quarantine. It’ll be Bun Loc for dinner; a perfect meal for a wintry day.
Long time! So what’s happened in the last six months?
- I’m slowly looking for work. Not good medicine for the ego.
- Got MegaHAL back online again at megahal.kranzky.com
- Working on Lazybones (formerly Hacktile) and it’s going well
- Released Sesame with Jack
I also released Gravitas at the end of last year. So feeling pretty productive, even though I’m not earning a lot of $ at the moment.
Keeping fit and doing heaps of reading; 24 books so far this year. Have just joined a few different libraries as it’s getting to be an expensive hobby.
New bike has been ordered and will be delivered in September. Looking forward to it. Managed to dodge COVID; both the kids had it recently but they isolated in their bedrooms and we kept the windows open even though it was freezing cold.
I’ll try to write more regularly again as I enjoy reading mundane daily entries from a few years ago. It’s the usual thing; I feel I’ve got nothing to write, and I always hate what I’ve written until enough time passes. Then it seems OK.
Plan is to release Lazybones soon, build some landing pages to try to get a new startup idea off the ground, start earning money again in a new job, and generally avoid COVID and have fun with the family. A simple life.
Last post before I turn 0x32 on Saturday.
Had a great 2021, releasing 5 projects. Finished and launched “Gravitas” on Christmas Eve.
This year I’m having a bit of a break in January, spending time with the kids and so forth, but in the background Beetlefeet and I have been working on coming up with 100 startup ideas. I did the “Aspiring Founders” startup school as part of this effort.
I also wrote a Twitter bot to solve the daily Wordle.
I plan to divide by week between 6 activities this year:
- GroupFire
- The Punk Collective
- Untitled Startup
- Fun Hacks
- Exercise
- Reading
We’ll see how it goes!