Weekly notes 41/2023

Thumbnail image: Driveway to my home in Mangalore.

It’s been a week of several firsts.

What’s been happening #

• The first re:Invent dry run went well. Sean and I completed the talk within the allotted time - actually a bit too early. We got some good feedback on our content and will work on improving them.
• It’s my first visit back home to India since moved to Australia. Also for a first - this is the first blog post I’m writing on my iPad. Since my blog is a static site powered by Hugo (for people reading on Substack - the post is imported to Substack later), I was trying to see how I could write a post without spending a lot of time yak shaving. I remembered [VSCode.dev gave me an online VS Code editor. It can also connect to my GitHub repo and I can write posts on the browser.
  • The writing experience on VSCode.dev was pretty nice, similar to writing on my computer. I even did a git branch change midway as I was writing the post and it carried my changes seamlessly. Uploading of an image worked pretty well too. The only pain point I noticed (and this was a problem a year back when I first experimented with iPad-only travel), is that when I choose a different tab and switch back, it doesn’t detect my attached keyboard and I need to fiddle with different places before the event that triggers keyboard attachment gets fired. This can be annoying, especially if you’re referencing content from another tab.
• Another first - I did a business class travel. Qantas had a well-priced business upgrade available via points (42,000 points to be precise - well-priced as compared to a business-class ticket purchase anyway) and because of my previous travels and that I could transfer points from Jo’s account over made requesting the upgrade was a no-brainer. The upgrade was approved the evening before the flight. Qantas mentions that not all benefits may be made available if upgrade gets approved at the gate/airport. To be honest, the lack of lounge access is not that big of a deal as compared to a roomier seat. Qantas' service on the business class was fantastic. I’ll write up on this on a separate post.
• Another first - I’m experimenting with FindPenguins as a way to share my travels. FindPenguins lets me upload photos/videos (or queue them up as drafts and upload them later) and has good features to mark profiles/trips/individual events as private. I’ve been trying to find a way to share a trip easily - the typical way I suppose is via Twitter/Instagram, or send pictures directly via WhatsApp or Discord. While it’s easier to provide a trip URL, unless people create an account and follow, they won’t be notified of new posts. Not sure if there’s any better solution. For now, check out my [FindPenguins trip URL and check regularly for updates.
• I’ve been chilling at home in Mangalore. Today, my sister, neice and I did a small day trip to Moodubidiri and the surroundings. Check out my FindPenguins trip below.

Music of the Week #

I came across this amazing acoustic-electric + finger peck version of a masterpiece.

Check out Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by Mike Dawes.

I haven’t read a lot this week, so I’ll point you to a great tribute by The Corrs to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie

Link of the Week #

After a lackluster first season and a poor endgame launch, Blizzard’s Season 2 and the next big patch aiming to overhaul Diablo IV’s endgame systems looks promising. MaxRoll has a great summary of what’s changing.

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