Weeknotes 2

• This is my third set of weeknotes, but for nerdy reasons I started counting them at 0. I think I regret that already. Off-by-one errors through-out.

• Working at home means it takes a particular effort to hit the 10,000 step target each day. Even if it is an entirely arbitrary target, it’s still a target that feels good to hit. Not hitting means I’ve probably spent too long sat in front of the computer - something that happens all too often.

  Since the kids have been home-schooling, I’ve found I’m hitting the target more frequently as we make sure the kids are getting enough exercise and not stuck in the house all day.

  Looking for the small positives of the various lock-downs we’ve been in since last March, it’s true to say we’ve explored the area around our house far more than we would have done otherwise.

  This past weekend we managed a 5 mile loop from our front-door that managed to wear the kids out. It wasn’t the most picturesque route, but its fun exploring the footpaths that join the streets you’d normally drive straight past.

• In mundane home-office news, I’ve turned my desk around so I now sit looking into the room with the window behind me. I had originally planned to do it the other way around - so I could look out of the window, but that would mean my webcam would then get a full view of the room and leave nowhere for the mess to hide. We decided that wasn’t for the best.

  As it is now, the webcam gets a better backdrop without me having to worry if there are any clothes drying in the background - something I have only been caught out by once…

  You can see it all in action in this week’s Twitch stream.

  I’ve also mounted my monitor on an arm so I could raise it up a bit. Works well so far, although some more playing is need to get everything in the right place.

  I also need to find a new home for my Raspberry Pi that was mounted to the back of the monitor. I’m thinking I’ll fix it onto the underside of the desk somehow to keep it out of sight.

• Inspired by a tweet by Simon Willison I’ve setup office hours where anyone can book time with me to talk about Node-RED.

  I’m using Calendly to let people sign-up for a time slot without having to do the awkward email back and forth to find a free time.

  Calendly provides some really nice options to help manage this. I’ve told it I’m available all day on Fridays for 25 minute calls - but that it should only allow a maximum of 4 calls on any one day. It’s also synced up with my Google Calendar so I can easily block-out times when I’m otherwise unavailable.

  If you want to schedule some time with me for a chat about Node-RED, then you can do that right here.

• We’ve started watching The Great. More historical costume drama/comedy. The first episode has just dropped off All4 - which is why we started it at 11pm last night even through Jo had to be up at 6am for work. But so far worth a watch if you can find it.

• I have read about 4 pages of Mythos in the last week. Will do better this week. Just not tonight as it’s now 11:58pm as I write this. Better get it published whilst it’s still Tuesday.