Easy Photos Day

Practicing Trick-or-Treat with grandma.

Carving pumpkins obtained from their respective school field trips.

The My Little Pony, Rainbow Dash, and Piggie from "Elephant and Piggie".

Ready for trick-or-treaters. (We probably ended up with about 20).

Warming up by the fire after hitting Hanford Court and Hummer Court.

Review Day: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

There are no major spoilers in this review.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is the first book in The Gentlemen Bastards series, by Scott Lynch. (The series is planned out as 7 books but only three have been written in the last 17 years). The book tells the story of a small group of grifters who pull a long con on a member of the nobility before getting swept up in the larger backdrop of unrest in the island city of Camorr.

Although Camorr is a violent, bloody city, the camaraderie and witty dialogue of the main characters grounds the story and offers characters worth rooting for. The book sometimes reminded me of Cate Glass' Illusion of Thieves but with more darkness, testosterone, and backstabbing.

The pacing of the book is excellent, with flashbacks used extensively to bring new perspectives or humor to the scenes in current times. Though the thread of the narrative can initially be hard to follow because of the time jumps, it all comes together satisfyingly and in surprising ways. By about the 60% mark in the Kindle edition, I could no longer predict what was going to happen to the protagonists, as rugs upon rugs kept getting pulled out from underneath them.

The book is a little long-winded -- there's plenty of epic background information that seems like it will get unpacked in future books (like the fact that the entire city was built by an alien race). By the end of the book, though, you really get a sense of Camorr that serves to deepen the twisty power plays described on the page.

I liked this book enough to go straight on to the second book, Red Seas Under Red Skies, but it also functions very well as a one-and-done.

Final Grade: A-

Vote BU 2023

Please make sure to write me in when you head to the polling stations tomorrow. I have a winning or undefeated record against every other candidate, and an actionable, common sense platform.

1. Target will be required to keep at least 3 manned checkout lines open during business hours.


2. Diners will receive 20% off their orders at any restaurant that uses a QR code for their menus.


3. Amazon can no longer sell goods from mysterious knockoff companies whose company name was invented by mashing the keyboard with CAPS LOCK on.


4. Senators from the great state of Virginia can steal 1 vote from West Virginia by rolling a natural 20.


5. Influencing Google rankings by writing a ten paragraph article to answer a simple yes/no question will now be a Class A misdemeanor.


6. The content libraries of all streaming services will be merged and nationalized as a critical ad-free public service for $9.99 per month. (Legislation Rider: Old episodes of Boston Public will be permanently added to the content library).


7. Loudoun County Public Schools will only be allowed to send you 1 email per week.


8. All funding for new fire stations will be redirected towards craft breweries with fewer than 3 IPAs on their menus.


9. People that put a clap emoji after every word in a sentence will be required to pass a 100-level writing class before regaining social media privileges.


10. A tax on dog owners will be implemented to fund a stimulus for cat owners.

Maia's Art Day

Let's all feel happy today.

This is a unicorn princess named Sunbeam, from a series of chapter books that Maia is engulfing.

And this one is Prism, from the same series, of course.

Many nights after Maia has "gone to bed", she'll pop out of her room and leave a sign for us, informing us of upcoming events. Rainbow Dash Day was a Halloween costume creation event sponsored by My Little Pony.

Maia started by copying these song lyrics out of her "Purrmaids" book. She then invented a melody for it. Aftewards, she added even more original songs to the songbook, such as the future hit, "Where'd the Magic Bunny Go?"

A live performance of the songbook:

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Foundation, Season One:
I struggled my way through the first season of this show (based on work by Isaac Asimov) because I'd heard that the second season was really good. Even with the slow-burn effect in mind, I abandoned it in episode 8, just 2 episodes shy of a whole season. The story feels epic and the production values are high, but whole thing is a dry, humorless affair without enough forward motion. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: C

Reservation Dogs, Season Three:
The final season of Reservation Dogs takes half of its length to find its footing, but ends on a very good note. I wish there had been more episodes of the characters interacting in low stakes, cozy ways rather than the weirder, one-offs that started the season. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B-

This Fool, Season Two:
The second season of this show isn't as fresh. A lot of initial effort goes into blowing up the premise of season one, only for all the characters to eventually end up in a similar situation. Still, the laughs are plentiful and it's a really easy watch.

Final Grade: B

Cyberpunk 2077:
I bought this game at bargain bin prices back when it was a panned, buggy mess. It has since become a highly-acclaimed "must play" game through inevitable patching. I've giving it a shot on three separate occasions, but never make it more than a couple hours into the game before I bounce off of it. I'm not sure what it is I don't like -- maybe I just don't like Blade Runner-like settings as much as I'm supposed to.

Final Grade: Not Rated

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

7:07 AM: Weekly server patching and maintenance.

7:56 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

8:08 AM: Bagel and Earl Grey for breakfast.

8:40 AM: Slow morning taking turns on Board Game Arena.

9:50 AM: Trying out Far Cry 6 while the rest of the family is at church.

10:42 AM: Treadmill time while watching Derry Girls, Season Three.

1:10 PM: Individually wrapping water chestnuts in bacon.

1:38 PM: Back home.

3:15 PM: Time for Zelda and Mario Wonder.

4:11 PM: Baking water chestnuts and sweet potatoes.

5:34 PM: Friendsgiving at Tammy's house.

7:51 PM: Dinner is served!

Recipe Day: Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Time

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cans (16 oz total) whole water chestnuts
• 1 pound regular-thickness bacon (1 strip per 4 wrapped chestnuts)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• toothpicks

Directions

1. Prep (can be done anytime): Drain chestnuts and blot in paper towel. Cut bacon strips in half lengthwise, then half again widthwise. Wrap bacon around chestnuts and secure with toothpick. Place wraps on wire rack over foil-lined baking tray.
2. Preheat oven to 400 F.
3. Combine kethcup, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce in shallow, wide container.
4. Bake wraps in over for 20 minutes.
5. Coat wraps in sauce (back-and-forth dragging motion like a snow shovel works well) and return to oven.
6. Bake 20 - 30 more minutes, until bacon is crispy and sauce is caramelized.

Bacon is the most finicky part of any "bacon-wrapped XYZ" recipe. The best part about this recipe is that the water chestnuts retain their texture without ever overcooking, so you can focus completely on getting the bacon just right.

Review Day: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

There are no major spoilers in this review.

Red Seas Under Red Skies is the second book in The Gentleman Bastards series, by Scott Lynch. The book takes Locke Lamora and his compatriot, Jean Tannen, to the island city of Tal Verrar, where they recuperate from the events of Book One and come up with a plot to rob an extravagant casino known as the Sinpsire.

The flashbacks focused on Locke's recovery from Book One's traumas and his growing awareness of the class inequalities in this world are the strongest parts of the book. The main plotline itself, however, is much less interesting and effective. The book suffers from a convoluted "road trip" structure that pulls the reader further and further from its initial premise.

By the midpoint, Locke and Jean are sailing with pirates a long way from the Sinspire because of a plot within a plot within a plot. While the nautical sections are fun to read, they're orthogonal to the original heist in Tal Verrar. The hard pivot to sailing and swashbuckling makes the final resolution of the heist feel like a disappointing afterthought.

I struggled a bit with the way the plot and characters developed in this book. I felt like the Gentleman Bastards relied far more on luck than skill and cleverness in this outing. I also felt like the author set up some interesting potential conflicts between Locke and Jean that were resolved too easily and not given the weight they deserved. After the overwhelming maleness of the first book, I did appreciate the addition of interesting women characters, like Selendri the disfigured casino agent and Zamira Drakasha, captain of the Poison Orchid.

Red Seas Under Red Skies dampened my enthusiasm for the series to the point where I'm not sure if I'll continue on to Book Three, The Republic of Thieves. Still, I enjoyed this book more often than I didn't, and would say it's worth giving it a try if you were a fan of Book One.

Final Grade: B-

Easy Photos Day

Playing Twister on a compass rose.

Getting some miles-per-hour.

Interrupting Board Game Arena night with Larry and Janice.

Sunday afternoon fire pit.

Messy marshmallows.

Thanksgiving Retrospective

pictures from Thanksgivings past

Since we apparently vanished from 2017 - 2020, here is a bonus picture.

Thanksgiving Day

The URI! Career Triangle

I give an annual presentation to a fresh cohort of my company's Technical Leadership Development Program, describing my unusual career path from software engineer to word wizard over the past 20 years. This article is an excerpt from that presentation, capturing the key questions I asked myself whenever I reached a point in my career where I could pivot or progress.

My career has zigged and zagged over the past twenty years, starting in an overly optimistic grad school berth as a music composer, through many joyful years as a software engineer, to my current role where I write more in English than in Python. Each time I took on new responsibilities or considered a lateral move, I had a framework in place to make career decisions. It's not something I consciously realized back then -- just something I reverse engineered after the fact. If you're early in your career, my framework might help you consider your way forward with more objectivity and consistency.

Each time I reached a point in my career where I could potentially do something different, I asked myself three questions, related to Competence, Satisfaction, and Salary.

Competence: Can I get good enough at this to stay marketable?

You need to have the potential to learn and excel at your job. Competence will give you peace of mind and the ability to look ahead instead of treading water fearfully. For example, you don't want to be a Machine Learning specialist if your linear algebra skills are super weak.

The demand for your role and the available talent pool will influence the answer to this question. If there's a very low demand for your job (in my case, academic professor of music composition) or a low barrier for entry (enterprise Java maintenance developer), you will spend more time fighting for your position than growing in it.

Satisfaction: Can I do this every day and not hate it?

Satisfaction affects your mental well-being. You really need to be able to come to work without dreading it. I've known people that squander the entire weekend dreading the approaching Monday rather than recognize that something about their job is unhealthy. Satisfaction can be intrinsic (Do I like what I'm doing?) or extrinsic (Am I changing the world by doing this?) and different people will need a different balance in each category.

I've found that a huge proportion of my job satisfaction comes from surrounding myself with good people. One of my key maxims would be to never join a company just for its reputation. A company is just the people that happen to be working there at the time and it's the luck of the draw if you end up working alongside the people that will make you excited to come in. Instead of fighting to get into the next Google or Facebook, seek out the best people wherever you are and latch onto them like a barnacle.

Salary: Will this support the lifestyle I want?

Clearly, this question is less important in tech compared to music, but the ground truth is that we all work for a wage that enables us to live the life we want. In spite of many motivational coffee mugs, "doing what you love" will only make you hate it. Monetizing passion is a lost cause for everyone but the exceptionally talented. My second maxim would be: Instead of doing what you love, do what you're good at and use the money to ENJOY what you love once you've gone home for the day.

When you consider salary, remember that there's always a minimum point under which you can't survive, due to our high cost of living. However (in government tech), there IS an upper limit where having more money is just nice to have -- this is the point whether you can objectively consider whether you'd rather be locked in a secure facility all day for plenty of cash, or you'd rather earn a little less and surf Reddit all day long. In my case, I found the perfect balance between hourly rate and hours worked so I can be present for my tiny kids and not burn out from overexposure to dry government proposals.

Interpreting the Results

So you've asked yourself these 3 questions and come up with answers. What's next?

In a perfect world, you would have 3 emphatic YES answers and you would definitely take the new role. You probably want to pass on the role if you have any hard NO answers (unless you have extenuating circumstances like unemployment) -- there will always be more opportunities in the future.

Realistically, you'll have a mix of YES and MAYBE answers. This is the point where you consider those responses and figure out if the strength of the YES answers outweighs the uncertainty of the MAYBE answers. Is it okay if the role is a little less fulfilling as long as the salary is high? Do you love the job so much that you're willing to earn less? Are you worried about how you compare to other candidates but expect your satisfaction and salary to be worth the stress? Figure out where you sit in the triangle and make your decision.

What if I choose poorly?

Regardless of what you decide, you will be okay! There is no such thing as a career mistake, which brings me to my final maxim: Career choices are just like dating. Just as every relationship helps you understand what you need and want in a partner, each new role you take will help you define your realistic, sustainable career. You may end up with the occasional job nightmare and that's okay. Each negative path will emphatically lock down a potential "what if" until you have arrived at a role you love and excel in.

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2023 album.

• Events
  • Went to the dentist on W 11/1. Family dinner at Fire Works Pizza.
  
  
  • Date Night at Local Provisions on F 11/3.
  
  
  • Had my parents over for dinner (ham) while Rebecca taught Yoga Anatomy at Easy Day on S 11/4.
  
  
  • A day of raking, fire pit, and outdoor meals on S 11/5.
  
  
  • Breakfast for dinner with the kids at IHOP on M 11/6.
  
  
  • Voted on T 11/7. Also went to the doctor for my annual physical and a tetanus shot.
  
  
  • Ian was sick for a day on H 11/9.
  
  
  • Visit with Tom and Peggy on S 11/11. Made lentil and sausage soup for dinner.
  
  
  • Friendsgiving at Tammy's on S 11/12.
  
  
  • Went to the HOA meeting on W 11/15.
  
  
  • Family dinner at Bungalow Lakehouse on F 11/17. Online board game with Larry and Janice in the evening.
  
  
  • Early Thanksgiving dinner with my parents on S 11/18.
  
  
  • Winterized the outside of the house on S 11/19. Had Nolan, Julia, and Ashleigh over for fire pit s'mores in the evening.
  
  
  • Hosted Thanksgiving Lunch with the Whitmer clan on H 11/23.
  
  
  • Put up the Christmas tree on F 11/24.
  
  
  • Visited Tom and Peggy for dinner on S 11/25.


• Projects
  • Mixed some basic Korean alongside my Spanish lessons on DuoLingo. Still learning its alphabet.


• Consumerism
  • Sporadically playing Grim Dawn in the absences of other games.
  
  
  • Enjoyed watching Last of Us this month.
  
  
  • Enjoyed discovering new music by Katzenjammer.

November's Final Grade: B-, would be better if I didn't still have a cough from last month's colds