Fri Dec 06
i'll be waiting here for you, my love // on this new york city coast
š¦ Week 4 was abbreviated for Turkey Day in the States. So I am combining Weeks 4-5 into one reflection.
š„ The hub! Finally made it to the physical space in downtown Brooklyn. It felt like exploring a new dimension of RC, from kitchen table conversations to random elevator encounters. These are the serendipitous moments that, frankly, do distinguish it from remote RC. I also had perhaps the best matcha bubble tea of my life from the HeyTea around the corner, which I have to admit was seeming a bit pretentious at first contact (it was a āMatcha Zen Latteā - not a sponsored ad). It was also just nice overall to be back in Brooklyn, where I had lived for the past 5 years before last summerās migration to the DMV area. I hope to make it back again this batch!
š± I want to plant a digital garden
on this site. I have a stream for thoughts and inspo; this blog for longer, denser reflections (needs a nature metaphorā¦ a forest?); I use a sun icon + a subtle yellow day theme for light mode; then I use a moon icon + a midnight navy night theme for dark mode. So how else can I (over)extend this nature metaphor? I am thinking of my garden as a sort of un-polished wiki: a place for rough notes and projects in various states (i.e., maybe sharing project updates or devlogs or gifs and links).
š» lil booya, the ghost friend in my Nature of Code ec(h)osystem, learned a new āfollowā skill this week! Itās a small, joyful update. Book club continues to be this wonderful boon, even when my progress is slow. There is something empowering about having a space where ābehind scheduleā explicitly doesnāt exist - only genuine curiosity and shared exploration matter.
šļø December has brought new adventures - literally! Iāve traded on the intensity of Advent of Code for a gentler december-adventure concept: writing at least a bit of code each day of the month. So far Iāve resurrected an old bash script, learned some new Python tricks with PyScript, and continued with my p5.js sketches. These small daily experiments are adding up in a nice way.
š¼ Career thoughts are starting to peek through the corners of my mind, in which I had shoved them deep for this half of batch. A hub conversation brought them into sharper focus - the realities of Washington DCās tech market, the question of whether to stay in ML or return to product engineering or some mix, the hope of finding meaningful civic-oriented work. I expect these thoughts to rise to more prominence in the new year, for better or worse.
š New spaces for learning continue to open up at RC. This time, it is āChart Chatā where my somewhat-dormant interest in data visualization has found real pros willing to share their expertise. I love the exposure to awesome people and projects that I get in this group!