Write some common lisp, I have a few things in progress that I sometimes have spurts of progress with:

• implementing some random algorithms and markov chains from a course on probabilistic methods in computer science I’m taking this semester.
• I’m also taking combinatorics (a.k.a. How to encode stuff) and I’m playing with different ways to represent motzkin paths (and transforming them into one another).
• I am designing a set of tools for designing lattices including a notation for working with them. So far the largest part of this is thinking about different representations and interpretations but I have some experiments now that I may poke over the weekend.

The interaction pattern is to walk a path from the bottom and once you reach the top the computer does something (that’s very abstract but I’d like a consistent organizing principle so it’ll have to be quite abstract).

I’ve gone in so many circles but every time I return lisp holds me tighter. Anyway that’s what I want to do but then there’s stuff I have to do:

• write a landing page (pure html) for this lattice project
• write a script that lets me update my dns settings to point to a new ipfs pin and update pinata to pin the new site version.
• wrestle with my system and get it to perform basic tasks that I haven’t configured it to be able to do because I’m bikeshedding.

Partying tonight because I finished two finals in the past two days (matrix algebra and logic). Now just to grind studying for my algorithms final next Friday… 😬

I have been doing Advent of Code in Rust but I need to look around at other people’s solutions because I only make use of a narrow set of capabilities of the language and my code in general looks very hacker-together. My aim is first and foremost to learn how modules work so I can down on the redundancy. Also trying to make sure I don’t smoke or drink on the weekend.

Continue learning about TLA+ to apply it at work!

Doing AoC in BQN!

Continue working on a typeface I’ve been designing for a year now: https://neil.computer/notes/introducing-berkeley-mono/

Feedback is most welcome. The ‘r’ glyph is wonky, there are issues with the way uppercase ‘W’ looks, especially in small sizes.

Aspirationally:

Going to the aquarium with some friends. Socializing in person still feels weird. It’s hard to get that back into my comfort zone.

Working some more on a track in Ableton Live. Most of the pieces are there now, it’s mostly a matter or rearranging some stuff and getting the overall flow there.

Maybe working a little more on my fantasy console project.

I’m now on holiday until the end of the year. My plan for the weekend was to play Halo Infinite but then I saw that Serious Sam 4 was on Xbox Game Pass. I played the first two a lot (including quite recently - they work nicely in WINE on macOS), the new one seems to have captured everything I liked about the original and made it even better. I’ll probably get to Halo over Christmas but absolutely nothing beats Serious Sam when the goal is turning your brain off for a few hours.

Finish studying Agner Fog’s Intro to Digital Electronics manual

Packing stuff to get shipped, getting delicious deli sandwiches, and working on grokking typechecking code for Garnet, my “what if Rust was simple” language experiment.

On vacation! We were just in Montreal for a couple if days and are going to stop for a couple of days in Ottawa before heading home.

Teaching the older kids to program. My eldest started with Scratch at school (4th grade - 9 yrs old), which got him and his younger sister interested in doing some more Scheme work. We’re slowly working out of Simply Scheme which is surprisingly approachable for small children.

I started working on a toy order of battle databasing system yesterday but no idea if I’ll get any substantive work done on it. Started it in Python since that’s what I use at work, but it’s deeply unsatisfying. May look at using Haskell instead if I make any progress.

Also present shopping, blech.

Heading on my first plane out of Manchester since nov 2019 to Lanzarote for the weekend. Technically have been before but was too young to remember, looking forward to exploring. Also the final F1 race of the year, which could be amazing or a farce, too difficult to call.

• Preparing my baby names app for launch, a long tail of boring tasks and setting up the paid part of the app.
• Iterating on my text-to-diagrams app to allow declarative auto-layout. I’ve done research and gave some experiments to perform.

Just applied for a job, so really nervous about it.

Besides that, working on crust shell (lots of stuff has been done! I’m just working on implementing job control then I’ll showcase it in it’s own post), learning Icelandic, and working on being more social by going to events at a local college that I got my GED at.