This week: visited Zoo, bookstores, and initiated adoption process. Watched Tamil movie “Maharaja”, set up music streaming with old tracks, and had a support rotation at work.

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 a government-established bookstore and book reading club called Cafe Bookmark (video in Malayalam here) last week. And after that, we went to a bunch of second-hand booksellers and bought more books for cheap. Book therapy, and it works!

• We also went to the Zoo. For both of us, it’s been at least 10 years, but it remains pretty much the same. The lions look drugged and super tired, but I got some good shots of a king cobra and some sloth bears. The Thiruvananthapuram Zoo (& museum) has always been good for it’s large, green space right in the centre of the city. I just wish it was better maintained.

• We decided to apply for adoption this week. It’s hard to see Ammu undergoing multiple rounds of IVF injections, and it has affected both of our mental health, and so this is now the way forward. We might still try with an egg donor, but adoption seems like the better thing to do. We went to the local Child Welfare Society, met a social worker who was very helpful and briefed us on the entire process end to end, and also registered at CARA. There’s a 3 and a half year wait, but that’ll pass by quick.

• Watched Maharaja this week, and it was a fun ride. The ending was a bit unexpected, but it’s the usual dishoom-dishoom Tamil fare. Anurag Kashyap as the villain was a surprise, and I think he did a pretty good job. Mamta Mohandas is superfluous however.

• I set up a Plex server a while back, but this week I set it up for music too. Downloaded a bunch of old 90s songs that I used to listen to while growing up and used my iPad to stream it to a Marshall speaker I had bought (again a long time back). I also cleaned my turntable thoroughly and connected it to a proper set of bookshelf speakers. Listening to these old tracks brings back so many memories.

• I was on support rotation this week, and it’s one of the more interesting Automattic rituals. It’s interesting how much your perception of who the customer is and what their problems are sometimes differs from reality.

• We are taking a break next week to go to Varkala. Jose’s Elixir Cliff has always been a great place to stay for us, and Sanjay and Prema are also nearby, so we’ll spend a bunch of time with them as well.

Links of the Week

• Good to see that the Ruby LSP is also getting JavaScript like features. I have a lot of nostalgia for Ruby, and I still think it’s one of the best ways for a single developer to be productive in the age of frameworks and microservices.
• Interesting way to kid-proof an internet connection via DNS. I wonder how long it’ll stay kid proofed though 🙂
• I like this general idea behind this Karabiner layer configuration to move navigation also to the home row. I might try out something like this next week. kanata seems like the more ergonomic alternative but its installation is not straightforward.

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