Nice long break means I can finally get around to rewriting my travel checklist app properly (and add on the house regular-maintenance items functionality I want). Past me would have added users and stuck it up for everyone; now I'm instead thinking "what if I didn't go through all that hassle?"

In rather excellent news, we're now at the point where a light aircraft can detect its pilot being incapacitated and successfully land and then shut the engines off fully automatically. My hat is off to the Garmin engineers who built this system. avbrief.com/autoland-sav...

For reasons known only to myself, I documented and reviewed nine different Christmas sandwiches on my trip back to London. Please, maybe, enjoy. (Mostly I wanted to get practice at lower-effort single take filming!) youtube.com/watch?v=cF2-...

Took delivery of an extremely 2000's VR glove in the pub. Yes I am on the bus. I have no shame.

The new V&A East Storehouse is fantastic. Not only is it the most pure, channeled form of the V&A's eclectic collection, but the big pieces on display are great, including an ENTIRE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT DESIGNED OFFICE.

Popped into Hamleys (the world's oldest toy shop, and something of a dream destination when I was little!) and while it is definitely still delightfully packed with toys, wow is it smaller than I remember. Though I guess I'm a lot bigger now as well.

Lost my Google TV dongle a trip ago and decided to try a Roku stick in its place. I'm quite impressed - power still works off a TV USB port, you can Bluetooth your phone to it, you can have it send audio to your phone (and headphones), and it asks if you're sure when you press the Netflix button!

The biggest difference I'm noticing since my last trip back to London so far is that they've seemingly changed the cadence on the "sorted" announcements from 61-01-6 to 6-101-6.

Always nice to see the standard UK weather from the other side.

Rideshares to the airport were $45 one way today. Parking in the "economy" lot is $20 a day. But it turns out that parking at my local train station, which has a train direct to the airport every 15 minutes, is just $2 a day. Feel a bit silly I didn't do this before (it does take slightly longer!)

Spent a little bit of time tonight working on a tablet mode (hinge angle) service for this delightful little machine - the Chiwu Minibook X N150. Was just taking someone's existing Go project and changing a few things, but it _did_ involve udev rules so I think that at least counts as Real Work.

Now OpenAI has bought 40% of the world's DRAM capacity and prices have shot up, starting to wonder when the 384GB of RAM in my basement server will outpace my house's value...

I have owned a Thermomix for five years and have only just discovered that it can make a very decent custard in 13 minutes. This has revolutionised tonight's apple pie.

What I love about Lumines Arise is that there will be a level with an emotional song about the meaning of humanity, and then a few levels later one that's just a fun piano riff about how cool pigeons are.

tetsuya mizuguchi truly, earnestly believes, with his whole heart and whole mind, that generic vocal trance from 2003 has the power to awaken humanity's shared consciousness and guide us to universal peace. The strength of his conviction is so powerful that it might actually cause this to be true

I am very much enjoying Lumines Arise, but I wish they had put the music and visuals on a game I was any good at. (I am getting better, but it's hard to beat decades of getting better at Tetris)

Denver, a metro area of 3 million people: zero good poutine places. Providence, RI, a city of only 200,000 people in a state of only a million: I was eating delicious poutine within 10 minutes of getting off the train. I know they're a bit nearer Canada here but cmon.

Finally riding one of America's very few Proper Trains (currently enjoying a great view on the way out of NYC). And I even snagged a cheap first class upgrade!

My attempts at a nice relaxing weekend have immediately been undone by my garage door opener failing (pulled off the top and the belt sprocket is at much more of a jaunty angle than it should be)

Catching up on all the new Steam Hardware announcements and boy, am I going to be giving Valve a lot of money next year.

Fortunately if I get stuck in Atlanta next week due to an airspace shutdown I can just get the train home! (holds finger to ear) Hold on, I'm being told that it would be literally faster to cycle back to Denver...

this was for a colorado measure guaranteeing universal free lunch for kids. funny how a short two-column table can say so much in so little space.

Two years ago I interviewed a 31-year-old NY state assemblymember about a 7-year-old girl killed by an SUV driver in his district. I hung up the phone, astonished that I'd talked to a legislator who so thoughtfully articulated what actually needs to change on our streets. He'll make a great mayor

I need to get one or two more flights in this year so you bet I'm going to head to Mayor-Elect Mamdani's fine city and try at least some of the food recommendations he's dropped during the campaign.

Very happy to have voted for this one. It was literally "tax the rich to feed kids".

Not only does everyone just get opted in to vote by mail here, but they make sure you still get the sticker. And even better, my closest drop-off box is right next to both Halal Guys and Five Guys.

I do have to say, though, that walking into Mr Burger in Grand Rapids is like stepping back in time 50 years. In a good way.

Have really enjoyed my short visit to (west) Michigan. Absolutely beautiful here (though it is also maybe the perfect time of year as well)

For cursed reasons, I find myself needing to create a 10-pin Mini USB (yes, that's a thing) to composite video cable - "compatible with the GoPro Hero 3", as the spec sheet says. Great, let me just go back to 2012.

Camping with some of my fellow mountain rescuers and had to explain how I couriered a payphone across the Atlantic and then returned with this tent in its place. It's such a wonderfully weird tent.

Finally booking some very silly travel for the rest of the year (alongside my normal London Christmas trip). Going to some places most people do not go to by choice...

Once again my financial advisors have very reasonably suggested that I raise my 401k contributions and I am honestly so glad I have help adulting.

US National Park #27 (of 62) today - Channel Islands. Had to start getting to the ones you can't just drive to at some point! (Also I love a good ferry ride, especially when it goes via a pod of hundreds of dolphins)

OK, there needs to be a future fancy chair sponsorship tier for PyBeach...

The PyBeach venue certainly has a Vibe (positive).

Currently prepping the North Bay Python networking gear for a beach holiday. A PyBeach holiday, even.

Also available in SF: the largest donut I've ever seen in my life.

The beauty of being in San Francisco: wanting Japanese curry for dinner, looking at the options, and finding that there's a great place just two minutes from the hotel.

It's official - `django.tasks` exists! Coming soon to @djangoproject.com 6.0. 585 days later, the first step (of many) in Django's background tasks journey is finally complete! 🥳 theorangeone.net/posts/django...

Had a really lovely time in Chicago at DjangoCon US - delighted to be returning here next year. It has really been elevated in my view the past week into one of the true Big Cities of the USA.

Also, who calls a town Gary?

Popped out of DjangoCon for a few hours to visit my 26th US National Park - Indiana Dunes. It's quite something to stand on what feels like a seashore and see the skyline of Chicago floating on the horizon.

It has somehow been twelve years since I was last in Chicago, but it is a lovely time of year to be here, and I am already enjoying the weather, an actually functioning public transport system, and this giant one-bedroom apartment that was somehow the cheap option.

Inherited an unfinished drone that was missing some of its motor mounts. Redesigned them in Fusion, built a water bath, machined carbon fibre for the first time ever, all to discover... the polycarbonate 3D printed alternatives I designed are just as strong and within 1g of their weight.

Are there any other good pluggable-reconciliation-loop frameworks that aren't Kubernetes? (Where you can use entirely custom CRDs/controllers but it's pushing it a bit). I find it odd there's not other obvious ones out there considering how nice it is as a code architecture...

I know I left it way too late to book a hotel room for DjangoCon US, but what is up with every single hotel in downtown Chicago being $400/night that week?!

While it does suck for my flight to be delayed 3+ hours out of DEN due to the usual afternoon thunderstorms, watching ATC carefully stack all the planes over the mountains and then release them around the storm cells is fun.

The new Naked Gun has so many great background jokes it definitely needs at least a second viewing. And some really nice nods to the originals.

Back in SF for a very brief visit and I feel like the AI billboards along the 101 are reaching near-critical levels.

A hotel nearby has had this on its sign for the last three years or more and... I don't know why. It puzzles me every time I drive past.