February 2019
February has been a busy month with work. I’ve been getting back into a long running project, refactoring some code, and laying the groundwork for features that we will develop later in the year. Currently I’m working on a combination of React and PHP, with some Node.js deployment and testing utilities.
I attended “Working in the Open” at Firestarter Festival, and the CivTech Demo Day. There is a good community of people in Edinburgh at the intersection of public sector, technology and design, and I’m glad to be able to participate in these networks.
The big event of this month was attending Product Forge Digital Health. I mentored a couple of teams on technical issues, and helped by taking mentor, team and event photos. I published these in a blog post last week.
Trips
I took a trip to Kirkcudbright for a day or two. It was a wee bit overcast, but I still managed a nice windy walk along the coast.
I have a general resolution to go wild swimming at some point this year. Part of the resolution includes “getting in the water” on a regular basis to combat “the flinch”. I popped up to Threipmuir Reservoir in the Pentlands for this months dip. I am looking forward to actually going open-water swimming in the coming months.
Reading and Learning
I mainly started books this month rather than finishing them. I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which was a good read.
Some interesting articles I read this month include (in no particular order):
- How we lost our ability to mend
- The Twitter Takeover of Politics Is Just Getting Started, Tyler Cowen in Bloomberg
- Oh God, It’s Raining Newsletters, Craig Mod
- The Road Ahead: A New Year of Possibilities for Brain Tech Startups
- How sex censorship killed the internet we love, Violet Blue in Engadget
- Status as a Service (StaaS), Eugene Wei
I’m continuing with the Introduction to Chinese classes at the Confucius Institute. A few basic phrases under the belt now. I’m searching for simple Chinese-language news sources and Twitter accounts if you have any suggestions?1
Coming up
In March I’ll be doing more client development and consulting work, taking a trip to the Cairngorms and (hopefully) spending time with friends in Glasgow. I’ll also be increasing my running distance in preparation for the Hackney Half Marathon in May.
