I have often said they should make another Pokémon game that doesn't involve fighting and, well, Pokopia is fantastic.

Doing my US tax return involves telling them how much money is in my UK pension, so yesterday I found myself driving 10 minutes to an area where Three UK has a tower with a roaming agreement just so I could receive an MFA code to log in and see the amount, to tell the IRS, so they can ignore it.

Lovely work Gorton and Denton, and congratulations to Hannah Spencer. Resounding win for hopefulness and sensible politics. #ukpol

Learning GDScript as I play around with Godot. I always love understanding a language that is designed very particularly, especially one with Python influences.

Unfortunately, while I got to the hotel quickly, it turns out that the hotel aggregator that my company's travel agency made a hotel booking through took the money but didn't actually make the reservation due to a "system error", and now they are arguing about who pays for it while I wait.

I do love the feeling when you peel away from the hordes of people going towards Lyft/Uber at SFO, walk onto the BART platform, get on a train and it leaves 30 seconds later. Already in Daly City before I would even have got picked up.

Just found some game design idea notes of mine for an automation/factory game and the top two notes are "should be optimistic" and "anti-colonialist". Not bad.

I am supposed to get a lot of personal admin done this weekend and it feels like fiddling on the roof as Rome burns. At least the cats are happy and snoozing without a care in the world.

Finally got a chance to stay in one of my favourite examples of brutalism, the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. As the front desk clerk joked when I asked to check out - "Why would you want to leave?"

"Spend company money like it's your own", says our expense policy. So you're saying the company should buy five 3D printers, import lots of British chocolate, and acquire a series of increasingly esoteric laptops?

I have had the Lenovo Yoga Book 9 for just two days, and I have already solved the bottom-touchscreen driver issue in Linux with some terrifying C code: github.com/andrewgodwin... I should probably go submit a hid-multitouch patch, but this gets things working immediately for now.

Did I need the silly two-screen laptop? No. Am I delighted with the build and OLED screen quality, surprised how useable the touchscreen keyboard-and-touchpad Lenovo wrote for it is, and happy that a decent amount works in Linux out of the box? Yes. (Also, what a way to play Factorio)

Went to a lovely local bakery/brunch place this morning that had "Croissants and Gravy" on the menu and I am torn between this being a food crime and being actual genius.

Passed my EMR exam so I am now certified to give oxygen, splint things, patch up bad holes, and mostly go "oh yes, you really need someone much more qualified than me". Will probably go up to EMT at some point but that requires quite a bit more hands-on training!

Pictured: One cat, shortly before he realises that now there are presents under the tree he can avoid the anti-cat spikes and try to climb it

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).