Recently updated blogs

A few years back I shared the Universal NPC Roleplaying Template that I’d developed for recording NPCs in my campaign in a way that both (a) focused prep on the essential elements for running a great character and (b) organized that information into a format that makes it easy to pick up the NPC during a session and play them with confidence. (And also to rapidly swap between multiple NPCs …

The picture that inspired my blog header. AGU has announced that it will be sunsetting the AGU Blogosphere. So, I am here to say goodbye – and to thank AGU for years of hosting my blog. I started blogging for the AGU Blogosphere in 2011, when I was in graduate school. I’ve enjoyed my time blogging here over the years, particularly my “What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas” and …

Prospect Park, 12 January and 17 & 18 February 2024

Image from hereAt the Bavard Bar in St Leonard's a few months ago, a Bavardier asked me if I'd noticed the difference between the US and UK meanings of second-guess. I hadn't! She felt that the US meaning was overtaking the UK meaning, but whose meaning is really whose? Here's what Oxford Languages says: But more than the one meaning is North American. The Oxford English Dictionary lists it, in …

omg, this article (external link) makes so much sense. A few weeks ago, my local supermarket converted to a “Woolworths Metro” store, and I had no idea what the implications of that were, except that they stopped stocking some stuff I actually want and need (cooking ingredients, mainly) in favour of expanding their range of potato chips. Now I see why they’ve done this: [W]hile Woolworths supermarkets are subject to …

I’m Design Director in a digital transformation consultancy after having worked as a consultant for 10+ years and in-house since 2018. Being a designer in a consulting environment is pretty unique so I thought I’d try to describe it for others who are interested in moving into that industry. Sometimes, the user is your client. The main difference between working as a designer in-house and giving your opinion in a …

Should we tip machines for the work they do for us? Does that question even make sense? What follows is a reflection on metaphors, technology, deceptive design, AI and more… Read on. Metaphors and more In her book God, Human, Animal, Machine, Meghan O’Gieblyn discusses how we use metaphors when talking about technology. She argues […]

Jekyll is a static site generator built in Ruby. It’s been powering this site since 2012 but I’m worried that might not be true for much longer. I’m a bit torn on how to feel about this. First, a bit on static site generators (SSGs). Serving only static content is fast. With an SSG, you’re effectively “pre-compiling” all server-side elements of a site at build time. Once you send the …

We built Rowan’s bed last Sunday night, expecting her to try it for a nap on Monday. She did, and loved it, and got so excited about the prospect of having her own bed that she’s rushed to get into it every night this week. She doesn’t last the night in there, but she’s done a heck of a lot better than we expected her to. Starting to look at …

My wife wanted some picture frame shelves for the hallway and staircase to break up the large wall surfaces. I was not hard to ask, and decided to do different styles to mix things up a little. Both Astrid and I are fans of Lisa Aisato‘s artwork. I bought the 2023 calendar for her as a present, and we want to display some of the artworks in the calendar. In …

Overlay Deployments for SaltStack or building exception systems with Ansible · February 18th, 2024 Let's take a look at a real world problem and build a simple solution for it. We have a complex configuration management system that has been built up over several years. The repository that is hosting it was devised around a monolithic one set of rules fits all. This didactic view of the world worked, initially, …

David Hoang, Should managers be technical?: Career development looks more like unlocking attributes for a different subclass in a role-playing game, than picking a distinct class that can never change. It’s not a path. It’s a collection of skills and attributes focused on certain outcomes. Applying foundational skills is heavily contingent on your role and responsibility. Careers, management or not, aren’t straight lines. The skills you need for your career …

Elliott Cost's Palm app helps people make easy web pages and I think it's inspiring

I’ve written about the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell’s novel of the same name at A Year In The Country before, including some of the controversy that surrounded it relating to the imposition/use of non-director approved music by the production company… which brings me to some other Orwellian 1984 related controversy which involved Apple Computers. In 1983 and 1984 Apple created and had broadcast a television advert that depicted …

The Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer stands as the next generation of air frying technology, boasting several advanced features aimed at enhancing cooking efficiency, safety and convenience. Equipped with a high-performance…