Hot and smoky. Maybe a good thing when you’re talking about food but not so much when you’re describing what it’s been like to be outdoors here and much of the Midwestern and Eastern parts of the U.S. this week. We’ve had sustained highs in the 90s for most of the week, and air quality has ranged from moderate to hazardous all week as well. On Thursday we had some of the worst air quality I’ve ever experienced. I went outside briefly to take out the recycling—we’re talking three minutes max—and I felt miserable. We’ve got a trip planned to northern Minnesota later this week and I’m starting to think we’re going to cancel it.
I managed only two Peloton rides this week, Saturday and Sunday. I skipped Tuesday’s ride because the bike is in the office space I share with my wife and she worked late (a poor excuse, but true), and then I skipped Thursday because of the aforementioned hazardous air. We have an air purifier that we were running full blast, but I still didn’t want to cause myself to breath too deeply. So I rode yesterday and today: a Power Zone endurance ride and a HIIT and Hills ride.
We saw “The Odyssey” on Saturday, and loved it. I don’t think it’s Christopher Nolan’s best movie—and probably won’t be my favorite of his—but it’s a well made, well acted, well told version of one of this planet’s oldest tales. I can’t wait to watch it again.
Today we went to the “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910 - 1945” exhibit at the MIA. It was the final day, and I’m glad we went. The exhibit covers four decades of visual art in Germany with the obvious impact of the rise of fascism and Nazi-ism on the work and the artists. I found it difficult at times reading about the fate of some of the art and artists whose work was on display and the way that mirrors how art and culture is being treated in the U.S today by the Trump administration. The defunding of arts and culture programming, trying to control what views are expressed, and the removal of certain works and histories from museums, universities, and public places. It was all there. At the same time I was inspired to see how artists protested the rise of fascism in both obvious and non-obvious ways, and ultimately that it survived. We survived. We will survive.
Things I enjoyed this week
- Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen are doing a podcast about their rewatch of their show Portlandia and it’s just lovely.
- Phoebe Bridgers appeared twice on “The Tonight Show” performing her new song “Lost Boys”. The first night she performed with a band of kids, and I cried tears of joy watching it. Keep an eye on the keyboard player. The second performance was an acoustic one, this time with a band of older gentleman. I can’t wait to see her in September.
- I read two articles this week about programming with LLMs that sort of rhyme and get at the heart of what me and my team at work have been discussing: what does it mean to be a developer anymore if we’re not writing the code ourselves. What have we gained? What have we lost?
- “The Human in the Loop is Tired” by Laura Summers
- “Code was our Medium for Thought” by Amelia Wattenberger