2026-05-11 04:58:14
The dog lagged, unusually, behind for the whole last stretch of the walk home. When she eventually caught up after much cajoling, the reasons for her sheepish attitude became apparent; she was carrying half a starling and didn't want it confiscated. It was confiscated.
Trekking over the field a touch before dawn and the distinctive call of a Northern Lapwing split the dawn chorus. There's a marshy area where the cow pasture meets the cornfield meets the peat bog that looks like ideal nesting grounds for the little blighters. I hope they do well with their chicks!
I used to really dread being pulled into a client call on the spur of the moment but, the more I get into this project, the easier that becomes. I feel like I've found a groove — this is more familiar territory than some of the other work and it's reflecting in my confidence.
Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive. Predictions are uttered by prophets (free of charge); by clairvoyants (who usually charge a fee, and are therefore more honored in their day than prophets); and by futurologists (salaried). Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist’s business is lying.
Ursula K LeGuin, Introduction of "The Left Hand of Darkness", added 1976
2026-05-10 05:34:22
I must have first read this when I was about ten and didn't think of it again until a few weeks ago when my brother mentioned "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" and I asked:
what was that book about the psychic children on a road trip that had a title like that??
I was duly reminded of the title and that you should always treasure your hivemind!
But, yeah, that's the plot. It's 130 pages of two kids running away.
Key drops enough exposition on the way to keep it interesting all the way up to the Big Reveal™ at the end. The mechanism he chooses –selective amnesia– can, and does, come across a little convenient. On the other hand, this isn't LeGuin level Nebula Award winning anthropologic science fiction; Key is writing warm folksy children's stories with gently radical undertones.
His characters aren't incredibly well developed; the baddies are just bad, the good guy is a priest who runs a homeless shelter, and the two main characters are a little cardboard. That said, the book doesn't suffer for it.
His ability to centre prejudice without it feeling like an overt lesson is genuinely brilliant.
It clearly made an impression on the Walt Disney Corporation because they turned it into a veritable boat load of merchandisable intellectual property.
2026-05-08 13:16:29
The purpose of a design file is to gain consensus not tell developers what to build.
A design file should be included with a functional specification as supporting information to help a developer visualise the output of the code they are writing.
Because, no matter how much you use Auto-Layout or variables, a design file1 is a snapshot of a site in a single state — usually the happiest of happy paths.
They do not typically include enough information for a developer to build a fully functional application without resorting to (a) estimation, (b) guesswork, and/or (c) pestering.
Design files are useful, they have a definite purpose. A design file is an excellent tool for alignment; show it to various stakeholders for them to agree on (and, please make sure your development partner is one of those stakeholders). It removes some level of ambiguity when everyone thinks of the particular feature. See also, consistent naming of components.
Pharma websites particularly require approval before they can go live (yay, heavily regulated industry!) so design files are uploaded for Medical, Legal, and Regulatory review. It's a fairly antiquated system –a hangover from print like so much digital design– and never entirely captures the full scope of the completed piece of work.
But functional spec exists to cover all eventualities; behaviour for every single known failure state, generic messaging for unknown failure states, edge cases it would take weeks to design. Off-screen things like API calls and retry logic, schema and SEO best practice meta descriptions, og:image, tracking tags, lazy loading — none of these things can be shown in a png.
When budget is design-weighted, investing so heavily in something the user will never actually see means you're actually short-changing the delivery end of the chain.
1: Insert your own design tool of choice; Figma, Photoshop, Sketch/Glint, biro on squared paper
2026-05-07 12:47:12
“Let's make a grave…”
And that's what we did. Everyone was crying for the poor dead bird as they went around murdering flowers
Keiko-chan, the eponymous "Woman", is different; it's not explained how or why but that's not important, you can draw your own conclusions, or not.
She learns how to mimic being "normal" by imitating her coworkers and through slavish adherence to the company manual. If she is the perfect convenience store employee no-one will notice she is an imperfect human.
I wouldn't say I identify with Keiko-chan but I empathise with her; I understand some of her motives and can take some learnings from her experiences.
It's probably pithy to point out this is not a book about a convenience store. Like "Clerks" is not a movie about a convenience store. Like "Lord of the Rings" is not really about rings; it's about hiking.
As much as Murata's delightfully odd novel is about discount yakitori, it's about belonging and acceptance and self esteem.
2026-05-04 03:23:48
I passed a clump of Welsh Poppies in the graveyard, bowing their heads in the rain like respectful mourners, and felt a pang of jealousy that mine hasn't yet flowered. On my return, I noticed they, in fact, had! Floral "Baader Meinhof" effect?
I finally managed to log the buzzard on Merlin. I often see it circling fields or swooping overheard but it's characteristically quiet mostly. It was an early morning walk and heard a kerfuffle behind a hedge; it was clearly taking it some kind of bird or something 😬
Lead on a couple of important client-facing meetings this week. I'm no stranger to client calls but it's rare that I'm the most qualified person to report back.
The first was to go over the technical approach to the three new "flagship" features for an existing site's relaunch. It all went well; a lot of nods in the room and no questions I couldn't answer.
The second one was the end level boss; reporting our approach to handling personally identifiable information for healthcare professionals in a decentralised international digital ecosystem —to the client's Data Protection Officer, no less
I barely got off the title slide before they shut it down. Thankfully for a reason totally outside my control! At least my (excellent) deck is ready for the regroup and I'm confident in our approach.
Rounded the week off with some wholesome family fun; ice creams in the garden and a friend's kid's birthday party. Cockles warmed in preparation for a lazy Bank Holiday Monday.
A convenience store is a world of sound.
Sayaka Murata, "Convenience Store Woman"
2026-05-02 03:46:47
Happy May Day, Beltane, and Calan Mai!
Here are a few photos from my phone from the last month with neither rhyme nor reason to the theme.
