January 2023

Summary of changes for January 2023

A11Y: Continued UI / accessibility engineering work for a publicly traded HR software company. This month I was able to make strategic changes to the code that impacted the entire application, resolving hundreds of tickets with a single PR. Such a great feeling and win for the client.
Privacy: Finished work on updates to a cookie notice for a global SaaS provider.
Guitar: This month I learned Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix. I'm not playing it with my teeth or with my guitar on fire, or even with barre chords. I'm playing it mostly with open chords, but I'm taking it as a win. I'm going to be delving back into some theory and jazz standards next month. Looking forward to it.
Open source: I made no contributions to open source this month, which makes me a bit sad. Looking to contribute more this month.
Permacomputing: Devine Lu Linvega of Hundred Rabbits fame gave a lovely talk at Handmade Seattle 2022 called "Weathering Software Winter", discussing permacomputing and what it means to live and work on a boat, away from internet, in a world where software is all cloud based. Here's an excerpt:

Many of the tools that we thought we could rely on broke down, whether it is Apple products, or software that require subscription services, DRM, etc. As an artist you spend time developing a skill, you become a Photoshop illustrator. When your connection to the internet fails and that the software locks up, that skill that you thought was yours was actually entirely owned by someone, and can be taken away. Even though we've been paying for this sort of software for years, the moment that you can't have access to authenticate yourself that skill is gone. We didn't expect this, it scared us.

TV: Started watching The Last of Us. Never played the game. The show - and in particular Pedro Pascal - is amazing. And the latest episode with Nick Offerman is just the most wonderful blend of Station Eleven meets World War Z. Beautiful, poignant reflections on what it means to be human in the face of despair and untold loss.
Music: These are the songs that carried me through January.
Other / Random: celebrated lunar new year with my in-laws. Happy year of the rabbit! Painted the main floor of our house white. It was blue before, and giving us the blues. Feels good to start the year with a fresh coat of primer.

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