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weeknotes 32.19

finally, back to my regularly scheduled work life balance. it feels good to be able to turn my brain off and relax. rest feels like a punishment sometimes which is a problem i will need to unpack on my own time. i'm going to say i'm no longer sick, because i feel like i'm out of it. but who knows. i still have a slight cough. i know i just said i turned my brain off and i could relax but really what that means is my brain is fully firing and i'm able to think freely without thoughts of things that are required to maintain basic life functions like cooking meals or my pile of work that i need to do.

but here is the vibe:

eating: croissant and peach ginger jam. i have too many jams i need to eat. this is my dessert.

drinking: hot water (because of the cough) and white peach juice (because delicious)

listening: its raining and there is a leak dripping into a bucket. i can also hear the rain outside. nice to hear.

let me quickly mention something about work. oct/nov 2024 i made a conservative and an "ideal" estimate for my machine that i worked on. conservative estimate was based on the current (Q4 2024) capacity model. ideal was basically full time coverage and integration, running like another machine in the fleet rather than a specific process. i have to be vague on purpose. and now close to 8 months after release it has been more efficient than i ever expected i now have to scramble to figure out how to speed it up. i'm talking about shaving off half a second. and multiple of those half seconds to make a good difference in time. and i'm only happy because i spent close to a year trying to convince people that it would be good, but my machine would constantly break, and i refused to get the password to fix it despite constantly getting these passive aggressive "its good... when it works" comments. but i wanted root cause fixes and not bandaid fixes, because a software fix isnt the solution to a hardware problem when you build the machines yourself. but now everyone has seen the appeal. and everyone mentions that its actually quite simple to learn. and how it would be so nice if it could do various other things. vindication feels nice, which is three words i could've used instead of typing all that out. but oh well. you live and you learn, and one day you draft weeknotes ahead of time which allows you to more concisely convey your thoughts.

i finished on the calculation of volume 2nd and 3rd book. i'm fully into the book series. i read the first book last july and held off on the 2nd book because what if it stopped on a cliffhanger and i wanted the third book? thats what happened. i read both in about two sittings. they're short books though, under 200 pages. the second book i finished during my lunch break and someone said "i thought you were going to be reading a bunch of equations" i took an extra 15 mins in my lunch break just to finish the book. and last night i stayed up until midnight to finish the third book. but i think the title is finally making some sense. the first book was required for world building and in the 2nd and 3rd books plot begins to happen. i cant tell where its going even though its about halfway through the series because theres so many small things that are quickly talked about and then never again. the main plot point of the book is that the protagonist repeats the same day, november 18th over and over again. so things are pointed out to highlight variation in days but also repetition. the third book brought up a location i forgot about in the first book so who knows whats important and relevant. i'll avoid spoilers because nathan may read it. the fourth volume comes out in april so its not too long of a wait. i also read in praise of shadows which is an essay by tanizaki junichiro, one of the best japanese authors. very enjoyable read. its only 40ish pages on aesthetics and it sort of jumps all over depending on the topic. the part about gold actually made sooo much sense to me. one note i wrote about my most recent trip to japan, was about all the gold in one specific room at zuiganji temple.

next week the international booker long list will be announced... what if i read it this year? however i'm in such a good reading groove i think i need to make it through my list of physical books before i purchase more. i need to work through my physical books i even stopped myself from renewing my library card which i might call to renew tomorrow because i miss magazines... and i need to read station eleven to give it back to nathan when i go visit in april. i also have already spent like $200 on book this year and its only february...

nick and i do valentines day the same every year except last year while we were travelling. i make him banana pudding and he buys me flowers. its all very low key. but its been fun to see how this tradition builds upon itself. nick may know the names of flowers because i have pointed them out. i know he goes to the florist and asks for specific flowers that i like, sometimes he just gives them a theme. the florist knows and remembers him because of his requests. i might go take a better picture and replace it tomorrow. flowers

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anyways, for the first time since november i feel like i have energy. i'm going to go clean and possibly go grocery shopping, but the weather is so ugly out...