Weeknotes 2022 #48

Weeknotes are back!

Clearleft HQ

I’m wrapping up my last couple of weeks before I’m on annual leave for the rest of the year but I’m most definitely ending on a high and really excited about what the new year will bring at Clearleft.

He’s been here a while but this week our new senior researcher Luke Hay make it public that he had joined as an official Clearleftie. Luke didn’t waste any time setting up our first monthly research meeting to run through some really smart ideas and directions for research at Clearleft. Having another researcher join the team is a bit like having an early Christmas present.

And the gifts keep on coming! We’re the proud owners of 2 new shiny meeting rooms on the 3rd floor.

We have the privilege of working with some excellent freelancers at Clearleft. One of which, Lewis Nyman, introduced us to a useful resource called ‘Working with me… A user manual’. It’s a self-written document that celebrates our uniquenesses, and how and what we need to be at our best. I’ve really enjoyed writing my own and reading about my teammates. It’s already driving a more empathic workplace.

I’m taking advantage of the mild December weather now that the relentless rain has stopped and riding into the office more often. I’m loving the exercise and change of scenery. I’ve also forgotten how great it is to chat with people face-to-face and the general buzz of the office.

Writing

I wrote about leaving Twitter for Mastodon this week. I talk about how the simple act of verifying my account on the new social network has reignited my enthusiasm for writing and web technologies. I’m hoping to find some time over my Christmas break to have a play with Eleventy and perhaps Paul Robert Llyod’s Indiekit automatically syndicate my posts to Mastodon using POSSE.

I also wrote about trying to be helpful to those that need help.

Japan

With the borders officially opening to tourists a few weeks ago it’s looking more likely that my trip to Japan next year will actually happen.

I’ve had some time off recently and have been doubling down on learning some very basic Japanese. I’m taking a multi-modal approach using Duolingo, hand written flashcards, processing notes in Obsidian and consuming a variety of Japanese media. This week I discovered the Japanese food related podcast Japan Eats.

A few weeks ago Brian Suda sent me a link to a Japanese card deck called Hanafuda. I’ve been doing some research into the rules of Koi Koi, a game you play with the Hanafuda cards. I stumbled upon this lovely project by Heroku who designed and made their own version of the cards to celebrate their company values. I also found this stunning uncut card design.

The November sumo basho wrapped up recently. I was playing bingo along with other sumo fans thanks to Sumo Kaboom. Apparently my kachi-koshi bingo was a day or two too late. I’ll hopefully have better luck next time. I’m now on #TeamUra.

My home town of Lewes has an exhibition of imaginary journeys in Japan. The artists are really keen to tell you their stories. One of them have created some wonderful Yokai prints. The exhibition is on until mid December.

Hidden tracks

Having a root around my Twitter archive I found an old tweet I wrote observing the likeness of a clip of Donald Trump to the poetic nonsensical lyrics of Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart. I tested my hypothesis and present my results below.

Andy Keetch shared this very nostalgic collection of animated buttons from the web.

With the darker morning and evening rides I needed another light for my bike. Rather than buy a new one I quickly threw together something using a micro:bit, a metal binder clip and a zip lock bag that came from a Covid 19 home test kit.