Now

In an effort to revive the concept of now, here’s a much belated update.

After playing with Rust a bit for the Advent of Code, I’ve been stabbing away at some stuff in tandem with PyO3. It’s a nice novel environment that’s been a good tonic to the shift towards just delegating the production of software to AI agents.

I also went to my first tech conference, Confluence’s Current. It was an interesting experience and wonderfully convenient at the ExCel in London (and somehow a bit of it I wasn’t even aware was there).1

In Brief

TV

  • Taskmaster
  • Hacks (excellent)
  • Margo’s Got Money Troubles – I will watch anything with Nick Offerman
  • Euphoria – with very fleeting interest, the direction is often excellent, it has a style that feels reminiscent of music videos at times, but the writing and general plot doesn’t really hold my interest

Music

Gaming

  • 007 First Light – I fully believe this should sweep the gaming Baftas. Clearly crafted with such care and love, it’s a remarkable bit of storytelling (probably the best Bond story in over a decade) with gameplay to match
  • Marathon – I slightly burned out towards the end of Season 1 with the looming reset, but such a solid shooter even if the player population isn’t as substantial as it could be
  • Forza Horizon 6 – a bit of an interesting one, the gameplay isn’t words away from Horizon 5, but a dramatically improved map transforms the game
  • Two Point Museum – admittedly haven’t played much since 007 and FH6 came out, but it’s a game full of charm and whimsy and the latest DLC adds to it

I also got a Steam Controller, which feels a great translation of the Steam Deck’s controls to a standalone peripheral, but I’m definitely still working through some software snags with Steam and external games from other launchers.

Health & Fitness

I’m giving Bevel a go. I’ve got into a reasonable routine with cycling and using the gym at work, but I’m still trying to improve my health further. I’m particularly hoping that Bevel’s recording of trends on state with some of the less concrete stuff will help promote better habits (day-to-day variables, such as allergies, caffeine – that sort of stuff)

Footnotes

  1. Sidenote, at the same time as the conference, KCL and Imperial College London were both hosting exams in the expo halls. It was an absolutely surreal scale of desks, papers, and projected clocks the size of buildings. I left grateful that all of my uni exams were held in rooms that I could pretty much walk to from where I lived if I wanted to, not a painful and anxious tube/DLR journey away, and in rooms that held hundreds rather than thousands. ↩