weekends are for leisure

Amanda Nguyen, Rise Justice Labs and effective legislation

Amanda Nguyen is truly inspiring. That’s not something I say lightly.

  • She formulated an effective strategy for getting important bills passed unanimously.
  • She passed legislation by “taking our egos and shoving [them] somewhere”. Oh and compromise and respect. Yes!
  • She fought to fix the broken criminal justice system as it pertains to sexual assault, and rolled that experience into Rise Justice Labs.
  • Oh, and she’s training to become an astronaut.
  • The ZeroUSA campaign wants to ensure that politicians will be safe in voting for gun violence prevention legislation. Founded by someone who doesn’t want to lose his second sister to gun violence. Damn, that’s heart-breaking.
  • “This is a time of frustration, of political tribalism, and of waning faith in our democracy. And I don’t think there’s ever been a more vital moment in our history for people to understand that they hold the power.”
  • “I needed to work with people from all walks of life and people I didn’t agree with in order to pass laws.”
  • “In order for a healthy democracy to function, it’s citizens need to be able to hash things out. And we, I think, in this moment of extreme toxic political tribalism, have lost that.”

Listen to Amanda in the Chaos is a Ladder episode of Pod Save Amerca. Fast forward to 57:10 in the player below. Well worth 17 minutes of your time.

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Who Sang It Better

Fatherhood has exposed me to some new music. The themes are similar, so who sang it better?

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The Mask

Came across this poem while reading Nonviolent Communication for a book club at work. Great book, by the way.

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AFK with Suz Hinton

Given that I have a lot less time these days, and that my brain is being taxed by a recent job change, I’ve been on the lookout for shorter, less attention-demanding podcasts. Enter AFK from Changelog. Episodes are less than 30 minutes, and showcase “the human side of creative work”.

Especially check out AFK with Suz Hinton. They touch on burnout, and the importance of asking for help. It’s not a sign of failure.

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Pull request reviews as an async pair-coding session

I started a new job recently and my on-boarding mentor told me I was bringing lots of value to pull request reviews despite being the new guy. This caused me to pause and reflect on how I approach code reviews, what I might be doing differently from others, why I do it and where my habits came from.

Perhaps the best way to describe my approach is that I think of code reviews as an asynchronous pair coding session:

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Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree

Love this song and sentiment. Getting close to this being reality, but not quite there yet.

Also, I can’t wait until more Americans begin to value and demand good character in their leaders again. That’d be nice.

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Build your own VR headset

A recent episode of the Changelog podcast featured an interview with Max Coutté. With the help of some friends and a mentor, he has built his own VR headset. Yes, please! But I should probably wrap up some of my current projects first.

Check out the Relativ project on GitHub.

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hostapd config for Alfa AWUS052NH

I use the Alfa AWUS052NH USB WiFi adapter for the 5Ghz network of my Raspberry Pi wifi router. Thought I’d share my config file so others can quickly get up and running with this adapter.

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hostapd config for Alfa AWUS051NH

I use the Alfa AWUS051NH USB WiFi adapter for the 2.5Ghz network of my Raspberry Pi wifi router. Thought I’d share my config file so others can quickly get up and running with this adapter.

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Mitigating inequality in housing

On a recent episode of Ars Technica Live, Catherine Bracy talks about the housing crisis that springs up in areas of great economic disparity, and efforts to find solutions.

Watch Ars Live Episode 16: The Silican Valley equality crisis.

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