Day eight of AoC2022 is in the books. This one took me a while, but I got to a decent solution. I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable with Ruby.

Just wrapped up day seven of AoC2022. This one took me awhile, but was also quite fun. Building up the equivalent of a file system was certainly a unique challenge. Probably over-engineered it, but I’m actually proud of my solution.

Day six of AoC2022 was definitely a bit easier than day five. I felt like my solution was a bit lazy when it comes to optimizing for speed/memory usage though. Nothing this M1 Pro can’t handle. 🦾

Day five of AoC2022 took me a bit longer than expected. The most difficult part was coming up with a way to parse the input. I probably could have brute forced some of the input myself, but I’d rather come up with a solution to parse it.

Completed day four’s puzzle on AoC2022. Started experimenting with writing actually classes in Ruby with this solution, which is something that I haven’t done before in my light scripting experience with Ruby.

Completed day three’s puzzle on AoC2022. I’m usually working on the puzzle towards the end of the day. No way to earn any points, but still pretty fun. Ruby has been an excellent language for this with its robust foundation feature set.

Started Advent of Code last night. I usually complete the first few days worth of puzzles before getting busy and forgetting to followup. I hope to get farther this year. I chose an unfamiliar language, Ruby, this year.

🔗 Beautiful animation of the lifecycle of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus.

I found this relaxing, mesmerizing, and a bit frightening.

via kottke.org

While cutting a piece of pumpkin pie for my two year old daughter’s breakfast: “No! Don’t cut it!” Kid, I’m not giving you the entire pie for breakfast. 😂

It has been a long, but lovely Thanksgiving. We had friends over for a “Friendsgiving”, complete with good wine and three different kinds of pie. It is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day minutia, but I have a lot for which to be thankful. Trying to practice gratitude. 🙏🏻

Birdhouse

Twitter seems to be in trouble. I have to ask myself, “Why do you care?” I haven’t been an active user on the platform in over six years. When I made the deliberate choice to check out of Twitter, I made my account private, uninstalled the application from my phone, and abstained from posting to the site. I have considered deactivating my account over the years, but have resisted the urge. What if I want to resume using it? This is doubtful, especially in its current state.

A few podcasts have urged people to download their Twitter history. I had been resistant to this, but after the initial Twitter layoff I decided to request an archive of my history. The process was smooth and I was able to download my archive a few days after my request. I didn’t know what to expect from the archive. Why would I want a bunch of random data? I was taken aback by the formatting of the archive. The archive is presented as a local web page, where you can navigate through your history of posts much the same way you could do so on the website.

Once I launched the local webpage in the archive, I was not ready for what awaited me: my full blown anxiety of the upcoming 2016 US Presidential election. My last few months of posts on Twitter were filled with concern and anxiety. My posts reeked of desperation. I was bargaining to avoid what eventually became inevitable on election night. I had forgotten what the final days before my sabbatical were actually filled with.

It seemed fitting that a few days after being confronted with this trauma our former President would announce his 2024 campaign. I didn’t want to see this, but I knew this was coming. My unease has returned. I’m not looking forward to the next two years.

🔗 The Right-Wing Mothers Fueling the School-Board Wars

Difficult to read at times. It’s absurd, to me, that this is where we are at. Yet, here we are.

At this rate, he would run out of fuel before completing the race. His crew chief instructed him to adjust his driving style so that his fuel consumption would decrease over the next few laps. With any luck, he’d be able to make it work.

#mbnov

He searched the room, but his efforts were fruitless. His suspicion on the whereabouts of the file turned out to be incorrect. He had one more idea on where she may have hidden it.

#mbnov

As she entered the door, she was relieved by the message on display. Her flight was on time. The last time she had flown this route, there had been delays that encroached on her vacation.

#mbnov

Truly interesting times when a head of lettuce outlasts a British Prime Minister. It still amuses me greatly that this became a thing.

#mbnov

There was a pit in his stomach. He had been frantically searching for it, but now he was certain that it was lost forever.

#mbnov

The consensus between me and some of my closest friends is that our democracy is doomed. The consensus of people on the opposite end of the spectrum is that our democracy is doomed, albeit for different reasons. Anyway you slice it, I fear we all may be right.

#mbnov

The deadline is quickly approaching. Without her insight into the inner workings of the system, they are sure to fail.

#mbnov

The cave was dark and empty. “Hello,” called the man. A response of, “Hello,” was returned a second later. The voice was familiar, albeit distant. The echo was a friendly reminder of his isolation.

#mbnov

He could finally breathe easy. The letter he had been waiting for had arrived. He was exempt from the latest tax hike. This exclusion would give him a little more money to save for his dream vacation to see the Northern Lights.

#mbnov

I have a deep admiration for those who are writing more long form micro.blog November entries. The creativity is inspiring. I would like to write long form fiction one day.

#mbnov

When I was sixteen, I remember the joy of obtaining my driver’s license. I was umpiring little league baseball at the time and shared my accomplishment with the other umpire. He flashed his pilot’s license at me: “You haven’t earned shit until you earn this one.”

#mbnov

⌨️ Useful alias for Fish Shell users who need to repeat the last command as sudo. Doh!

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday. When I was younger, the Thanksgiving feast was the main draw. The thoughtful introspection and time spent with family members in my household is now the main reason for the affection I feel towards this holiday.

#mbnov