It’s been a busy month. I’m not even sure where the month went. I figured I’d post a general update on what I’ve been up to.
Development Updates
I’ve been super busy at work, working on a new (to us) property. I’m not sure if I can announce what that property is yet, so I won’t. Once it launches, I’ll probably post an update here with more info.
As far as personal projects go, I’ve shipped a large update to Beer Style Guidelines. This update includes the Brewers Association 2021 Beer Style Guidelines. The release notes are here. I love updating the app with new guides as they come out, but I always forget how much work it is. I do a fair bit of testing the guide out before I release it, but I just know that I’m going go missing something.
This last few weeks, I’ve been really busy working on a few server components to another update to Beer Style Guidelines. It’s not ready yet and users shouldn’t notice any difference in how the app works. But this new set of server components it building towards some future features.
Gaming Updates
I haven’t been playing many video games this month. I’ve been so busy with the development updates above, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for playing video games at night.
I’ve dabbled in a few new games, but nothing has really hooked me. I think if a game hooked me, I’d find a way to play the game more.
Some of the games I’ve started:
I probably spent the most time playing LEGO Harry Potter Collection. I love LEGO games, they aren’t usually hard, and I can let my mind wander a bit while playing through them.
I stared Gears of War, but didn’t make it too far in. I’ve played through this game a few times, years ago. I have a lot of fond memories playing through these with my brother. But I just couldn’t really get into it again.
I finished the Pikmin 3 demo, but not sure I’m ready for the full game yet. I love the early game of Pikmin games, but I always get to a point where I get frustrated with the games. It’s probably because I’m bad at video games. I’m still debating whether I want to get this game or not.
I tried Hollow Knight. I’ve heard so many good things about it. It made me realize (even more) that I’m bad at video games. I couldn’t even get past the first boss (False Knight) before getting frustrated and giving up. I feel like I should keep at it, but I am just so bad at this game.
Book Update
I’ve read a handful of books this month. Looking back at the list, it was more than I expected. I listen to most of my books. It makes it much easier to enjoy books while I go for walks, runs, or while driving in the car.
In March, I finished these books:
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- Into the Dark (Star Wars: The High Republic) by Cladia Gray
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel Adaptation by Alessandro Ferrari
- Lead Developer: best practices and tips for lead software developers by Jeroen Leenarts
Bossypants was a fun, quick read. I like Tina Fey and the work she’s done. This book was written during her time working on 30 Rock (which was a great show). Tina is also an Eagles fan, so that helps immensely.
I am a big fan of the new Star Wars: The High Republic content that’s been coming out this year. It’s an entirely new era being discovered in Star Wars. I’ve been keeping up with the novels and comic books in this ear and have really been enjoying them. I listened to about half of this book in a single day during a long road trip.
I really enjoyed the art style in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel Adaptation. The graphic novel adaptation gets the bulk of the story across from the movie and the (non-graphic) novel adaptation. I still enjoying reading comics on my iPad. Although, I only really list the graphic novels or omnibuses on my list of books I’ve read.
The Lead Developer book was an impulse read of mine. I saw it promoted by some iOS developers I follow on Twitter, so I decided to buy it. The book is a good first version. There were a handful of typos throughout the book, but I could easily see past those. But the book does give a good overview of what a lead developer’s responsibilities are and some practical tips on how to survive as one. This is a relatively short book that I read in 3 or 4 sittings.
Wrapping up
This has been quite a busy month. I didn’t even cover the movies and TV shows that we’ve been watching. Maybe I’ll cover that in a different post, maybe not.
I hope to provide more frequent updates on the site. But I’m not always great with that.