Category: Uncategorized

Yours Truly, in the front yard.

Good morning, stay-at-homers! A number of friends from my old home town, Toronto, have been asking how we’re doing down here in Tampa, and what our days are like. I thought I’d post a couple of reports with photos, starting with this one.

Other seasoned remote workers may say that they work just fine in their pajamas, but I prefer to dress up as if I was still living in the “before times”. Luckily for me, I work in tech, so wearing an aloha shirt, jeans, and deck shoes, isn’t just dressed for work — some techies might assume I was dressing for a job interview.

We do have an indoor room designated as the home office. Anitra uses it during the day, and I use it in the evening to work on non-day-job projects. During the day, my work for the day job — building Lilypad’s mobile app — happens on the office that I’ve set up on our screened-in front porch. I get lots of light, enjoy the cognitive benefits of being around our yard’s greenery, and even get to say “hi” to the neighbours from a safe distance as they go about getting their exercise or walking their dogs.

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Here}s the view from my chair, panning from left to right. (Yes, you might be able to make out what’s on my screens, but none of them are displaying anything sensitive in these photos.)

The left view. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

The center view. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

The right view. Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Tap the photo to see it at full size, man.

It’s silly, dated, and full of the kind of fakety-fake techno-cheese that were the trademark of “hacker” movies of the 1990s, but the 1995 film Hackers is still a guilty pleasure. I find myself willing to suspend my disbelief about their depiction of the tech scene of that era, the motivations of some of the characters, Penn Jillette as a pushover cybersecurity specialist, and the way the movie shows computers in general.

However, there’s one thing where my suspension of disbelief comes to a crashing halt: The way the film tries to portray rollerblading as cool.

It’s on YouTube — legally, even! — as part of YouTube Movies, and you can view it for free; you just have to put up with some ads:

Idiocracy was fun to watch, but less fun to live in.

If you need something to fill up about ten hours’ time, may I recommend this YouTube audiobook version of Andy Weir’s book The Martian? As is typical, the book is considerably more detailed and science-filled than the film, and the book version of Mark Watney goes through even more ordeals than the Matt Damon version:

This is a fan reading of the book. It features women actors reading women characters’ parts, and isn’t a pirated copy of the official audiobook from Audible. It’s also enhanced with visuals, many of which come from the film, for those of you who need pictures with your books.

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

As I write this, I’m working furiously on finishing updates to a book — iOS Apprentice, 8th Edition — at my indoor home office, pictured above. I’ve got the audiobook on in the background; there’s something about listening to The Martian that helps me chug along. It’s probably the story of smart people coming up with creative solutions to problems that’s inspiring me. I hope it inspires you too, no matter what challenges you’re taking on.

You can also image how deep they’ll be buried as use that as a gauge for social distance.

Thanks to Liz Lawley for the find!