Pratik

Nerve Endings Firing Away

Doing Now

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Personal

  • We are enjoying our latest foster, Yuki, who got his genealogy test back with surprising results. We have vacillated between keeping him versus trying harder to get him adopted. My wife has opted for the latter and created a separate Instagram account for him to spread the word.
  • I printed my DayOne journal that also crossposts my Micro.blog posts.
  • Talking about journaling, I restarted my handwritten journal with a new Hobonichi Techo, and I’m hoping the rekindled monthly Micro.blog meetups on Analog Tools will keep me motivated.
  • I finished the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, my first set of fantasy books.
  • We have watched ten movies so far this year.
  • After being long-time fans, we attended our first Bryan Adams concert in Austin at the Moody Center. We also loved Trevor Noah’s standup show at the Bass Concert Hall but it was more disjointed than expected.
  • With the election year vibes heating up, I have been arguing a lot on Micro.blog or rather, as I like to think, debating passionately, so I thought I should explain why. This started with a particularly ugly interaction with a user on Micro.blog
  • We watched the Super Bowl, our only NFL game of the season, by cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs but mostly on Taylor-made reasons and to watch rightwing heads explode.
  • My son and I have been enjoying our soccer and EPL news exchanges via text messages.
  • I think I now have the perfect image upload workflow for Micro.blog, but frustratingly, it doesn’t work just as well as it does for Jarrod, who created it.
  • I got a demo at the local Apple Store for the Vision Pro and was blown away by the media experience.

Professional

  • We launched the NLS:72/2025 survey pretest last week and are getting encouraging response rates from a cohort the study has not contacted in nearly 40 years.
  • As part of revising the HS&B:80/21 study documentation, I spent far too much time changing sentences from passive to active voice. I wouldn’t mind getting AI to do this so I could do more important stuff.
  • Herding team members by devising a tracking system using Google Spreadsheets instead of specialized issue-tracking software tested my nerves, especially with a senior staff member out on FMLA.
  • I also spent more time than I envisioned dealing with Data Use Agreements and other contracting issues that cropped up before we could launch our data collection efforts.
  • Dealing with people who lack attention to detail is tougher than you think. Also, I have to think about how to hire people who possess that particular skill above all.
  • Getting student feedback for my alumni talk at GA Tech made my day.

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