Weekly Notes 23/2024

June 8, 2024

This week: Mac Pro feedback, photography experiments, Laapata Ladies, and upcoming travel and personal plans.

For folks not in the know, this is a weekly stream of consciousness zero-agenda “here’s what’s happening” or “here’s what’s interesting” post.

What’s been happening

We went to Ammu’s vellayani house last weekend. After rains, the front lawn has become really lush and beautiful. There’s also a surprise visitor, a turtle. Ammu has named it nanikoormam (or shy turtle).

Apple sent me a survey about the Mac Pro I bought for work, and I found it very difficult to answer this question: “What one thing, if anything, would you add to or change about your Mac Studio?” I think I finally answered that I would love it if the Mac played more Windows games, but for everything else honestly, the Mac has almost reached perfection for me. It’s super fast, reliable, never breaks or hangs, and everything I do is instant fast.

We went down to a local market last week near Vellayani and I took a photo of the wide variety of mangoes we have.

And this was just a small sample.

I’ve been experimenting with an X-PAN like 65:24 crop on my Fuji, and it leads to some really interesting compositions. Here’s one photo I liked of my living room.

Saw Laapata Ladies on Netflix and it was great! A nice wholesome story, if a bit idealistic, and great acting from all the women.

My school friend Sony bought an apartment in Trivandrum, and I went for the housewarming. We got drunk and talked about school, and that was a fun evening.

This blurry photo is the result of a bit much alcohol

It’s been 3 years for me at Automattic. It’s the longest I’ve worked at a company (except for startups that I co-founded) and with my recent switch to Woo, it almost feels like a new job all over again. I’m traveling to Istanbul for a week starting 23rd this month, and it’d be great to meet all my new teammates.

Looks like our Embryo Transfer will finally happen this month, and hopefully the week after next. ??

Switched to Hidden Bar after the Bartender fiasco. The only feature I miss is the custom spacing between icons that Bartender used to provide. The standard macOS spacing is too wide for me now.
I’ve been following the story of Wegovy and Ozempic (& other semaglutide drugs) for a while, but this story about how its parent company Novo Nordisk is worth more than the country where its founded is just crazy. I have also always thought that the answers to problems that science created (excess consumption and better quality of life for more folks) is more science, but the entire narrative of drugs to cure obesity is stretching my beliefs. It’s also amazing how much positive side-effects these drugs have, with the potential to wipe out entire addictive substance industries.
Started using Displaybuddy to control my monitor’s brightness from my external keyboard. It’s super convenient especially when I work early morning and late evenings.