Lessons from Career Coaching
personal workIn the autumn of 2022, I got an opportunity to attend an external leadership course. One of the things that it involved was some coaching sessions. I didn’t really think that talking to someone about work was something that I needed (and honestly probably didn’t understand what a coach did…), but engaged with it anyway. Cue the start of 2023 — Google went through some big changes, and unfortunately, my health took another downturn.
SailGP San Francisco
personal PhotographySailGP’s event on the San Francisco Bay, May 2023
Big Pine Lakes
personal PhotographyWe spent a few days in the High Sierra, off the grid, hiking the Big Pine Lakes trails. Highly recommended. I uploaded a gallery of some photography from that trip, including a few taken as we passed through Yosemite. The gallery can be found here. Lake 1: Big Pine Lakes Trail, High Sierra, CA.
Photo gallery
personal PhotographyA while ago, I removed my instagram account. Since then I have been wanting to find a way to share a photography portfolio. I’ve been taking more photos over the last few years, currently using a Canon R5 mirrorless, mainly with the RF 28-70 f/2 lense, but sometimes with the 100-500mm (again, sometimes with the 2x multiplier), 16mm f/1.8 prime, and 50mm f/1.8 prime. I decided to use the rather excellent Expose to give a scroll-through experience rather than the usual “select a thumbnail”.
Brain Fog
personal healthI originally posted this as a comment on hackernews in response to a post about this article in The Atlantic. I have briefly shared thoughts in a few contexts about the chronic health conditions that I experience, and wanted to share something here as it was very interesting to me to see brain fog, especially that which has developed post-infectiously, discussed in this forum. I have looked for a community in tech that suffers from chronic health issues, especially outside of my direct company, and not really found one.
Radio silence
personal PhotographyFor more regular updates, you can generally find me on instagram, or Héloïse on instagram. Héloïse on Mt. Tam at Sunrise - October 2021 Edit [2022-09-17]: Since April 2022, I no longer have a personal Instagram account. I make some posts on twitter.
Michelin Stars for Celiacs: Angler, San Francisco: Not recommended
personal food · one-star · celiac-starsAs some folks might be aware, I became allergic to gluten and dairy through the spring of 2019, and have been avoiding them in my diet since. Becca and I have not lost our passion for eating great foods, and visiting some of the fantastic restaurants in the cities we visit (although, in 2020, this has meant a lot of places in the Bay Area). One of the things that we’ve struggled a bit with is finding out how well some of the Michelin star establishments handle the gluten-free, dairy-free diet.
Silence isn't OK: Black Lives Matter
personal world-eventI haven’t ever used this site to post anything about my political beliefs. I’m compelled to right now, because of what is happening in my adopted home country. In a time where a great leveller has impacted everyone’s life, where circumstances beyond our control have impacted an aspect of everyone’s plans - we couldn’t use this time to unite and have compassion for all humans. The outrage at events in Minneapolis has spread across the US - and rightly so.
Swing
personal artInspired by Becca on the swing at Bernal Heights. October 2018, spray paint on layered card.
Cryptocurrencies
personal musingsThe concept of having no central entity control currency seems attractive to a lot of people. However, trust in some decentralised entity means trusting the way that they operate their business - how they’re able to audit their code, and write bug-free software. The only thing I know about software is that it isn’t ever bug-free. To reduce MTBF, you implement things multiple times, in disjoint environments. That said, the latest hack on a cryptocurrency/smart wallet I saw, made me wonder about their testing.