September 2025

It’s been a whirlwind of a month since we welcomed Rory at the end of August. We have now mostly settled down into a routine, and are figuring out how to juggle a newborn and an almost-three year old. It’s been the usual lot of household responsibilities, lack of sleep, and making sure Jack was getting the attention he deserves. We’ve tried to make sure we are doing things that Jack will enjoy, rather than simply doing the easiest thing. I was really pleased to take Jack out to the skatepark for the first time. He is riding a balance bike, and I hope he graduates to pedals soon. It was great seeing him try and succeed at riding well.

We also went to the Lothian Buses Doors Open Day, perfect for a transport-obsessed wee guy!

I ran two JavaScript events. Michael Hayes of Rookie Oven volunteered his time to talk about mobile apps vs the web platform at GlasgowJS. We had an “AI” night at EdinburghJS the following week with Alan, Sabastine and Steve presenting talks and Fanny talking about the Scottish Technology Club “Speaker Launchpad” programme.

In October we have another “AI” night at GlasgowJS and a talk on Astro+WordPress at EdinburghJS. I hope to see a lot of folks at each of those!

In reading this month I’ve been making my way through War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat and the first few chapters of the Sources of Social Power by Michael Mann. I’m hoping to round these off in October, then figure out if I want to continue to plough through the “Rise and Fall of Civilisations” reading list, or switch to something else for a while.

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