Now
Apr 2023
Culture
- Started the year really well in terms of reading. I'm enjoying being engrossed in a book again after falling prey to the distractions of Youtube et al. at the end of last year. Have so far read:
- The Last of Us was unbelievably good, and the final season of Succession has the same high bar. Balancing the heavy weight of those two against old comedies has been nice.
- Gaming time has been reduced, but a new controller with lower input delay seems to cover any lack of practice or skill my end.
Life
- One month away from getting married, and my life is a series of small decisions I will have forgotten I'd made next week and potentially won't even notice on the day itself. I'm very excited.
- Have signed an agreement to write a second edition of my book Practical Web Accessibility. Really excited by the challenge and, weirdly, the routine and commitment it'll require from me.
- Would you believe that purchasing a pop-up table tennis table was the best purchase my fiancé and I have made since moving? It installs a small bit of play into every day, and will definitely be worth its weight in gold come the summer when people visit.
- Meditating every morning for four months straight has rewired my brain for the better. Praise be to Headspace.
Sep 2022
Culture
- Just finished reading Radically Content and Selfie: How we became so self-obsessed. Both really interesting commentaries. Getting stuck into The Making of a Manager now, before likely switching to a bit of fiction for a change.
- Decided to splurge on the PS5 version of Borderlands 3 and do not regret it. It's incredible how much smoother and enjoyable the console makes the game feel.
- Finally investing the time in Ozark and Better Call Saul. I remember both for having slow starts, but have seen enough positive reviews to decide they're worth a second go.
Life
- Moved out of London and haven't looked back once. Feeling more rested, calmer, and working on a better work/life balance.
- Have started practicing pool again at a local club, after failing to convince my fiancé that installing one next to our kitchen was a great idea.
Work
- Moved all of my note-taking over from Bear to Notion. It feels like a very neat tool, but offline support has a bit of a way to go.
Feb 2022
Culture
- Genuinely still enjoying playing Fortnite! At this point though, you have to play at certain times of day to avoid all of the pro kids that live on the game.
- Finally started playing The Last of Us and it's a fantastoc game. Keen to finish it and head straight over to another zombie movie in the form of Dying Light 2.
- Reading a lot of non-fiction at present, including No Rules Rules and Billion Dollar Whale. I need to find a book that really draws me in for the first time in a while.
- Still tracking the films I watch using Letterboxd these days. Spiral is one of the worst films I've ever seen, and Spiderman: No way home was far beyond what I expected.
Life
- Training is going very well. Setting the goal of going to the gym regularly, even if it's not for the sake of a full throttle work out
- After contracting COVID over the Christmas period, it feels as though me and my partner haven't had a proper break. We're going to head to the Maldives for a week to try and sort that out!
- Started getting back into playing pool again which I'm really enjoying. It helps that I can play at a spot that has limited signal and so work doesn't threaten to clobber it...
Work
- My team at Octopus Energy has been growing at hyper speed. Right now the focus is getting our newest countries of Spain, Italy, and France up to speed to bring Octopus to new corners of Europe.
- Really enjoyed being a technical reviewer on a book around accessibility. It's certainly far less intense than writing one! It feels great to help make a great book on an important topic better.
- My laptop's battery finally gave out, so I'm now on a tasty new M1 MacBook Pro. It's insanely fast, and I haven't heard the fans turn on once, but there's also a LOT of M1 chip quirks that have made setting up everything a pain.
Tools
General
- Fantastical
- Bear
- Franz
- Albert
- Hammerspoon
- Notion (work documentation)
Coding
- VSCode (Night Owl theme)
- iTerm2
- ZSH
- Asana
This page is inspired by David Winterbottom's Now Page, which will lead you down a rabbit hole of other “Now” pages.