It’s been a while, huh? Season 2 of week notes coming right up.

Learning Typescript with a new project

I started a new web-based fediverse-related programming project recently. It’s nothing too serious right now and is mostly an excuse to have something to work on with my work being pretty unfulfilling these days. Still, I’m enjoying it and hoping I can get far enough along on it to eventually release it.

Very early on into the project I decided to migrate what I had to Typescript and I’m super glad I did. Learning something new is half the fun of a hobby project, and so far I’m really appreciating the ergonomics of working in Typescript. The most obvious improvement I’ve noticed is that my IDE is a lot smarter now and is able to give hints based on types like you’d expect from any typed language.

The guts of the project are pretty much there, so what I have ahead of me now is mostly front-end design and logic. Not my favorite stuff in the world, but I at least like to imagine I’m decent at it. I mean, have you seen what passes as production-ready from billion dollar companies these days? The bar’s not very high.

My new vinyl collection

I got a nice record player for my birthday a few weeks back and have since started a small vinyl collection.

My favorite part of the collection so far is the soundtrack for the Outer Wilds DLC Echoes of the Eye. It’s really neat how much care was put into the entire package, and there’s even a few Easter eggs between the artwork and the vinyl itself. Not to mention of course just how cool of a soundtrack Echoes of the Eye has.

Lord of the Rings is still incredible

I just finished yet another watch of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’ve said it before, but I really do think these are movies that people will still be watching 50 years from now. They’ve barely aged a day since they were made and every re-watch is just as rewarding as the first.

Having fun in a not good game

I started playing a bit of the new game in the Skate series, obnoxiously stylized as “skate.”. And I have some thoughts.

Is it a good game? No. The whole thing reeks of bland corporate appropriation of skate culture, and it seeps into everything from the level design to the voice overs which are so painful that one of the first things you’ll do is turn them off.

But is it a fun game? Actually, yeah. The standout feature right now is the sandbox nature of the game since you’ll see everything the missions have to throw at you within the first couple hours. I’ve been enjoying finding my own crazy lines and stunts to try to perfect, and it’s really neat watching everyone else in the servers do the same and getting ideas from them. Grab a few friends and I think it’s a pretty guaranteed way of making a few hours fly by, and the game is free so there’s not a whole lot to lose.

The future of week notes

I’ve never really tried to stick to a set schedule in the past with week notes. I’ve always looked at it more as a way to record shorter thoughts together that probably don’t deserve their own individual posts, but which are still interesting enough to me that I want to write something about them.

And aside from that, it’s just a format that I really enjoy and want to see more of. Modern social media being what it is, it’s fun to slow down sometimes and take a little longer to catch up with people I follow and chat with.

More of this sort of thing coming soon.

— JP