January 2026

Health kick, personal websites

In my December update I had said we had relaxed over Christmas and New Year, although it had been “mostly exhausting”. I think I understated just how tired we were after the holiday. Rory had difficulty sleeping for more than 45 minutes at a time, and with a three year old big brother there is no possibility of a lie in. Over Christmas I drank too much coffee, started really feeling the effects, and so decided that if Rory wasn’t going change then I had to. I’m back to running, but with emphasis on healthy eating. My aim is to get back to the level of fitness I had before both the boys arrived. So far I’ve lost over 2kg, and have rediscovered the joy of early morning and late night runs, mostly cutting across Marchmont and the Grange to get up Blackford Hill.

A view over to the Craggs in the morning sun

Family

We kicked off the new year with a quick visit to the National Museum and their Sprogmanay event. This month has been about spending quality family time, getting out more with the boys, and going to new places.

The National Museum of Scotland main hall

Jack and H in a motorbike with a sidecar in The St James Center

We spent a nice day out in East Lothian celebrating Norma’s birthday, and sneaked in a visit to Dunbar Beach on the way home. It was fun seeing Jack jumping in puddles and stream, letting off a bit of energy after a day of good behaviour on our schedule.

JavaScript Meetups

I organised two Code Jams with EdinburghJS and GlasgowJS. Unfortunately CGI cancelled our sponsorship and venue booking only two working days before the Glasgow event, so there was a last minute scramble to arrange something. We pulled it off, and I think everyone involved in both events had a good time. The theme for each was Personal Websites - build something to publish. I wanted to focus on personal websites as I think it is important to carve out a space online to write, publish, think and connect with others. Having a personal website is a great tool for playing the long game. Social media comes and goes, but you can take responsibility for your own content if you run your own site.

It was also an opportunity to discuss the state of the industry with other web developers and engineers. AI is obviously having a big impact - it’s part of my daily workflow now, and I’m bullish on the posibilities that it will offer not just software development but the wider world. I work with both Claude Code and Codex, and have integrated it not just into software development but project management and life planning workflows. We live in exciting times.

Reading

I read three books, and browsed a selection more:

Cover of On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle

Next month I intend to run more, starting my marathon training, delve deeper into using AI agents for work and life organisation, and try to set up my life and environment to deal with constant sleep deprevation (and support H too!). Wish me luck 👋