March 2024 In Review

We're a few days into April now so I'm overdue my March Review. March was a much more enjoyable month than February. We did a lot of stuff and I managed not to get sick the whole time which was great.

Travelling About

I started the month with a couple of hectic weeks. In the first week we met up with an old family friend for dinner in Southampton. We went to Mango Thai Above Bar where we had delightful food and a really fun evening. We also met up with my Mum and her partner for lunch to celebrate Mother's Day.

In the second week went up to Warwick University to give a guest lecture about AI and Machine Learning. I drove up and back on the same day (a good 6 hour round trip) so that I could be at home to meet Mrs R the next day and fly up to Edinburgh for our mini break.

We had a week off to recover before a weekend visit my Dad + his wife for her birthday party. It was nice to see a bunch of family members, some of whom we hadn't seen since before COVID. We also visited my mum and her partner the next day. We went out for Sunday breakfast with them by the riverside in Bewdley.

Learning in Public

Since I migrated to using silverbullet + Obsidian last month I've been writing a lot more in my public digital garden. I'm writing up any useful tidbits of information that I find there and gradually adding to them over time. Historically I have written these sorts of posts up as blog posts which then age and get left in time. For example my advice on python virtual environments which is due a rewrite would make a great digital garden piece.

I am planning to add summaries of my digital garden changes here. Partly as signposts to new information that readers might find interesting. Partly as a way for me to track and quantify the knowledge I am collecting.

I also published a few of articles:

Films, Books & Games

In March I finished The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky and started re-reading the Dune books. My book choice was largely inspired by seeing Dune: Part 2 at the cinema which I thoroughly enjoyed. The first time I read Dune I wasn't that impressed (but I was about 16 at the time). This time around, I am really enjoying it. I wonder if it is partly due to the fact that when I was younger I didn't have any visual reference. Now, having seen the films, perhaps I can better contextualise the things i read. We also went to see Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was surprised to see so much of James Acaster who normally only seems to get bit parts in things.

I've not really been doing much gaming in the last few weeks. I took my Steam Deck to Edinburgh with me but didn't touch it at all. Instead, I have been reading and have been listening to a lot of Three Bean Salad. I am especially enjoying the beans' new film review episodes. I most recently listened to the Dune episode to stay on theme.

Hopes for April

We're now in full daylight savings mode in the UK, the days are longer and we've even had some sunshine in the last few days. I've already been out in the garden a bit in the first few days of this month and I hope to continue this trend in April and finally get our garden tamed. Apart from that we've got a slightly quieter month ahead which I am grateful for since March was action packed and May promises to be similarly busy. I'm also looking forward to Cineworld Action Movie Season this month which will allow Mrs R and I to go and see some of our favourite 90s action films on the big screen.