To compensate for a recent dearth of posts…

One of the longest posts I’ve done that I can think of. Hope it brings you a smile, and maybe some good fodder to fill out your stuck-at-home days.

It’s been a few months since my last post, and despite the lengthy quarantine (which doesn’t seem like we will be out of soon), I’ve done a decent amount of stuff in the meantime.

First and foremost, I’ve added two more book reviews! The first was on Black Edge by Sheelah Kolhatkar, a book about the financial crisis back in 2008-2009, and the second was on Singapore: Unlikely Power by John Curtis Perry. Both were pretty great books, and I hope the reviews might help inform you about your next reading choices. I’ve got quite a few other books I intend to write reviews of in the near future, and even more that I want to read (and subsequently write reviews for 🙂 ), so keep your eyes open for that.

Quick note: I realize that there are a zillion links in this post endorsing various folks or other things, but none of these are affiliate links. These are purely things that I’ve found especially interesting in the last few months and hope to investigate further myself.

One of the biggest online productions I have experienced was San Francisco Opera’s “Celebrating the Summer Season,” which was a show going through the different operas that would have been performed. It covered the three main operas — Ernani, Partenope, and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. For each of them one of the lead singers performed an aria, and then there was a short interview or discussion with him or her, or someone else who helped out with the production. There was also a piece put together by the entire symphony (!), and another by the choir (they sang “I left my heart in San Francisco”). There were also a number of smaller short orations by the host tying it all together. Especially interesting to me were four of the performers that were highlighted: Michelle Bradley, Louise Alders, Jakub Orlinski, and Sasha Cooke. It was really heartbreaking that this season was canceled and this whole mess is probably going to make things even harder for traditional classic art forms than it has been in recent years, but they definitely put something together to be proud of in this “celebration.”

Another thing I did a couple weeks ago was join “Crochet 201: How to Read Crochet Diagrams in Patterns.” It was a short introduction to crochet diagrams by Mike Sellick through Michael’s. Quite fun! I already knew a bit about reading crochet diagrams from a class I took at a conference I went to — Stitches West, literally the weekend before I started shelter-in-place — called “Getting Started with Japanese Crochet Patterns” by Gayle Roehm. In Mike’s webinar we also learned quite a few little tips and tricks that I will use going forward, even if they weren’t specific to crochet diagrams. Quite a few suggestions of ways to explore further as well — Mike was exceptionally effusive about how great this book by Edie Eckman was, Crochet Borders. It does look pretty interesting, and Edie herself is someone I’ll be following going forward. Another book Mike recommended was Modern Crochet Mandalas, and he even showed us some examples of ones he’d done.

I’ve also been dabbling in cooking and baking. I’m considering adding a cooking section to my Links and Reviews page, but in the meantime, the most recent couple “projects” I’ve done were a Rosemary Focaccia and deviled eggs that I’ve already done in the past. They both still came out pretty well! Definitely things I’m glad to have in my repertoire.

I’ve also been doing a good amount of work (I’m one of the fortunate folks who can work from home), and in there I remembered a humor site shown to me by one of my former coworkers — the Codeless Code — which is a very insightful (poignant even) series of little short stories (most less than a page in length) that touch on different aspects of programming such as best practices as if practitioners were all monks. Definitely worth a look if you’re interested in the field.

Anyway, hope you’ve found something interesting here, and that you’re all staying safe and healthy. Until next time —