So it's been like 40 days since I wrote a #happy post. My shame is great.
A lot of stuff has been making me happy lately, which I'm trying hard to do to ignore all of the crazy news. So much hate in the world. People threatening to kill each other with nukes, people promoting hate in the streets, Nazis marching in the US, all kinds of scary. So let's ignore it for a few minutes and read things that make us happy.
First off, I'm playing through Pyre. This game is super enjoyable. I love it partially because the magic basketball is hilarious and fun, and partially because the writing is excellent. I've enjoyed all of the think pieces about how the game has no perfect ending, and the strange twists, and how hard it works to get you to keep pushing forward. The game is in a post-apocalyptic waste land, and people are kind. Gender is fluid. Characters are interesting. It's just fun and relaxing to play, and makes me think.
I'm excited for the Aloe App Kickstarter. More self care!
I am still loving the Youtube cooking show Binging with Babish. I recently watched his Jake's Perfect Sandwich from Adventure Time episode which was great. But I've also loved every episode in the show.
Team. There is a podcast where Levar Burton reads you short stories. I just listened to him read "Chivalry" by Neil Gaiman, and it was very entertaining.
@waxpancake collected some Twitter bots, and now I'm thinking about building twitter bots again.
I loved all of the great tweets that came out of Women in Tech doing amazing things:
Text on https://t.co/p490B9HX41 that tells you exactly how many of a thing are left and when you can get it? Took me a year. #WITBragDay
— Courtney Nash (@courtneynash) August 11, 2017
My 2-month rewrite of Hillary Clinton's donation page for mobile let twice as many users load the page & increased instant donations by 250% https://t.co/M3yuyUNY8D
— Beth (@bethcodes) August 11, 2017
Your infrastructure most likely uses something I had a part in writing and securing. #WiTBragDay
— jessie frazelle (@jessfraz) August 11, 2017
If you go to the Etsy homepage you'll see code I pushed out today! #WITBragDay 🎉🎉
— :･ﾟ✧ Samantha ✧･ﾟ: (@samantha_gold) August 11, 2017
I was the only woman SRE at @HFA, and now at NYT. I'm speaking at two conferences about my time at HFA later this year. #WITBragDay https://t.co/fyfQHPg5Ip
— Amy Hailes (@a_hailes) August 11, 2017
I'm sad I will again not be visiting the Playa this year. NatGeo published some good Burning Man photos though, so that's nice.
The email Hillary Clinton's pastor sent her the day after she lost the election made me cry. Unsurprisingly.
Three Vogue articles for you, because, well, fashion makes me happy.
- Jennifer Lawrence’s Best Red Carpet Moments of All Time
- Chelsea Manning Changed the Course of History. Now She’s Focusing on Herself
- Charting the Rise of Supreme, From Cult Skate Shop to Fashion Superpower
I love Moderat, and Moderat Live on KEXP is great.
"The Crown" Season Two Trailer Is Finally Here, And Matt Smith Has A Beard Now. Thanks, Buzzfeed.
"Fact: ops folks love trains" is a great thread. Because yes, trains are great.
NYPD decided it was time for 644,000 old warrants to be scrapped.
Blizzard has opened StarCraft II as an AI research environment.
No good news came out of Google this week, but @yonatanzunger was one of the more prolific writers when I was at Google. So I was glad to see that he put out his thoughts out publicly about the sexist Googler story that dropped last weekend.
I've been catching up on old podcasts, and I enjoyed Bonobo on Song Exploder.
If you've got the time, listen to episodes 102 Long Distance and 103 Long Distance, Part II from ReplyAll. They are amazing. The for a documentary on a similar topic, watch The Moderators from Field of Vision.
This Treat Camera Gave My Cat Trust Issues is hilarious.
NYT has three articles on different classic NYC eats:
- Ode to the Buttered Roll, That New York Lifeline
- Don’t Mess With My Bacon, Egg and Cheese
- The Secret Life of the City Banana
I enjoyed reading about time.gif, and I think I'm going to try and reimplement it in Go.
One piece of news brought me the most joy this week: Why Was There a Giant Inflatable Chicken Near the White House?
Shout out to @mel_cantrell who also makes me very happy, and sends me a lot of these articles.
Have a great one. Until next time!
/Nat