Photos

    Been asked to do a routine task today. This is the fifth time I’ve started it, the fifth time I said to myself “hmm, I should probably automate this,” and the fifth time I just did it manually. Now wondering if that was time well spent.

    Two columns, the left one with the heading 'This Universe' and five evenly sized boxes with the label 'Nah, it'll take too long. I'll do it next time', the right one with the heading 'Alternate Universe' with one large box with 250% the height of the left boxes with the label 'Build the thing' , and six small boxes taking up 50% the height of the left boxes

    The view from the top of Mount Rogers Reserve.

    Auto generated description: A scenic landscape showcases grassy fields and shrubs in the foreground, with a backdrop of rolling hills, distant mountains, and a clear blue sky.

    To get to Bundanoon from Canberra you have to drive past Lake George. Iโ€™ve always seen it empty but yesterday I saw it with water, so I had to stop and take a photo.

    A calm, expansive body of water stretches towards a distant shoreline with rolling hills under a clear blue sky, with a rocky shoreline and some vegetation in the foreground.

    Day Trip to Bundanoon

    Decided to go on a day trip to Bundanoon today. It’s been five years since I last visited and I remember liking the town enough that I thought it’d be worth visiting again. It’s not close, around 1 hour and 40 minutes from Canberra, but it not far either and I thought it would be a nice way to spend the day. Naturally, others agreed, which I guess explains why it was busier than I expected, what with the long weekend and all. Fortunately, it wasn’t too crowded, and I still had a wonderful time.

    The goal was to go on a bush-walk first. I chose to do the Erith Coal Mine track, for no particular reason other than it sounded interesting. This circuit track was meant to take you to a waterfall by an old coal mine. However, the track leading to the actual mine was closed, thanks to the recent rain. In fact, if I could describe the bush-walks in one word, it would be “wet”. The ground was soaked, as were the paths, and although conditions were lovely, the paths were still very slippery.

    I assume the mine was across these rocks, but there was no way I was going to cross it.

    After completing that circuit in probably 45 minutes, my appetite for bush-walking was still unsatisfied, so I tried the Fairy Bower Falls walk next. This was not as steep as the first one, but it turned to be a much harder track due to how wet and slippery everything was.

    I stopped short of the end of this one too, as it seems the path was washed away. But I did manage to get a glimpse of the waterfall, so I’m considering that a win.

    After that, I returned to the town for lunch and some train spotting. The train line to Goulburn runs through Bundanoon, and the last time I was there, there was probably a freight train every hour or so. So I was hoping to get a good view of a lot of freight traffic. Maybe shoot a video of a train passing through the station I could share here.

    Auto-generated description: A quaint train station platform with a sign that reads Bundanoon is shown, surrounded by trees and blue skies.
    Bundanoon train station.

    I had lunch outside and walked around the town a little, always within sight of the railway line, hoping for at least one train to pass through. But luck wasn’t on my side, and it wasn’t until I was on my way home that I saw what I think was a grain train passing through Wingello. I pulled over to take a video, and while I miss the locomotive, I got a reasonable enough recording of the wagons.

    Stopping by the side of the road to film these grain wagons passing by.

    Being a little more hopeful, I stopped at Tallong, the next town along the road. I bought a coffee and went to the station to drink it and hopefully see a train pass through. Sadly, it was not to be. So I decided to head back home.

    Auto-generated description: A quiet train station platform is shown with tracks stretching into the distance and surrounded by trees.
    Tallong train station.

    So the train spotting was a bust, and the bush-walks were difficult, but all in all it was quite a nice day. I look forward to my next visit to Bundanoon. Lets hope the trains are running a little more frequently then.

    Photos of the poor patient, sitting next to the clumsy human. Rest assured, she’s getting a course of pain killers, plus a lot of apology head scratches.

    Auto-generated description: A small white and gray bird is nestled between the cushions of a dark leather seat next to one leg of a pair of tanned trousers. Auto-generated description: A small white and gray cockatiel with a prominent crest is perched on a dark leather couch between two cushions next to one leg of a pair of tanned trousers.

    Bit of a stressful morning, involving injuries and unplanned visits to the vet. Things are well now, and the tension is starting to dissipate. But what a way to spend the morning. ๐Ÿ˜ฎโ€๐Ÿ’จ

    Yellow tea-towel on a display with the phrase 'I need a hug' in large letters, followed by 'huge margarita' in small letters. The first three letters of 'huge' were borrowed from the word 'hug'.

    Speaking of bad UIs, voliร : my first attempt at building something with Gio:

    A screenshot of a window with the title Gio, a connection header, a left pane showing a NATS message to send, and a right pane showing messages that can be received

    It doesn’t do anything now, but I’m hoping this will be something I can use to test NATS. I will say Gio shows promise. Not a huge range of controls to use, but having everything run in a single memory address is nice.

    โ€œWhat about your Savoys, Mrs. D?โ€

    Auto generated description: A supermarket shelf displays various brands of crackers, including Arnott's Jatz, Ritz, and Clix, with a price tag indicating $5.50 for one of the products.

    A black swan event.

    (And yes, I took this photo just so I can use this caption).

    Auto generated description: A black swan with a red beak is swimming in a body of water near a concrete step.

    Returned to Tuggeranong this morning for breakfast and a walk around the lake. Really enjoy going to โ€œTuggersโ€ when Iโ€™m in ACT. I canโ€™t quite explain it, but I always get New Zealand vibes whenever I visit.

    Auto generated description: A tranquil lakeside scene features autumnal trees, still waters reflecting the landscape, and a backdrop of rolling hills under a cloudy sky.

    If Slack’s looking for features to add, my vote would be for personal “annotation” messages in threads, similar to what Hey mail has. Many a time I receive a support request as a Slack thread, and it’d be nice to add notes such as customer IDs as a message that only I can see.

    Here’s a mockup:

    A concept mock-up of a Slack thread showing interaction between a support person and the author, with the private note message highlighted in yellow with the disclosure 'only visible to you'

    Edit: I knew I talked about this before. And looking through On This Day, I found this post, where I professed my wish for FastMail to add the same feature. Probably a good hint that such a feature should be table steaks for any system involving other people.

    New offering at the Cockatiel Cafe: the “breakfast bar”. ๐Ÿฆœ

    Auto-generated description: Two cockatiels are standing on a kitchen bench scattered with seeds, with one bird near the edge and another closer to the middle.  Auto-generated description: Two cockatiels, the same two shown on the previous photo, are eating scattered seeds on the kitchen bench.

    Coding standards at work calls for US English in our codebase. So I’m typing words like “color,” “initialize,” and “data center.” And it pains me. I know that’s irrational but, you know, I never claimed to be rational when it comes to things like this.

    At least the spell-checker’s on my side.

    Screen shot of this post showing red lines under the American spelling of 'color', 'initialize' and 'data center' indicating that they're miss-spelt

    My favourite gym t-shirt. All the Aussies would get this reference.

    A black T-shirt is displayed with the text 'WE'RE GOIN TA BONNIE DOON' printed on the front in bold white letters, with the line Bonnie Doon Hotel below it on the right.

    This I got from an op-shop but I have been to the Bonnie Doon Hotel a few times. It’s actually pretty nice.

    And that makes it the third time this week that I encountered a bug involving DynamoDB that was avoidable with a unit test that actually used a proper database.

    Meme of the Simpsons featuring the purple Stern lecture Plumbing van, with the text modified to say 'Stern Lecture Coding' and 'I told you not to Mock that'.

    (To be fair, this time is was my fault: I haven’t got around to writing the unit test yet).

    For the last few years, I’ve been using 4/24 as the expiry date of test credit cards within Stripe. Well those days are literally in the past now.

    Screenshot of a new credit card setup within Stripe showing the test credit card number of 4242 4242 4242 4242, and the expiry date 4/24, and the error message saying 'Your card's expiry date is in the past'.

    Day 30: hometown

    It’s far from perfect, but it’s good to call this place home. #mbapr

    Photo of the Melbourne skyline, facing Flinders St. station and the CBD, with the pedestrian bridge on the right, as taken from a bridge with an iron railing over the Yarra River.

    Day 29: drift

    Drifted a little from the path at this point of my hike today. Could be easy to get lost though, so it was important not to drift too far. #mbapr

    Australian landscape photo of rocks and native plants under a cloudy sky.

    ๐Ÿ“บ Sugar: Season 1 (2024)

    Quick review of Sugar: Season 1 (2024), by Mark Protosevich. Review reads as follows: Nah, sorry. I couldn't get through the first episode. I know what they were trying for: classic story of the keen detective, with the fast car and the cool lady companions and all. But it just didn't gel with me (might be because I have no nostalgia for the format). Plus, the cuts across time were awkward: it made it hard to follow what was going on. I'm sure this is for someone, but it's definitely not for me. Overall review: poor

    Day 28: community #mbapr

    A local market in front of a collection of national flags from around the world
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