First week back in Rotorua

Thoughts

It’s been a week of being back home in Rotorua. I’ve been away since February, but it feels like I haven’t missed a day.
I woke up this morning from a dream that I had just found out that Tom Rosenthal (the musician, not the actor) was in Rotorua on holiday. I decided that if he was, I should ask if he would like to come over for a cup of tea. Unfortunately it turns out he isn’t in New Zealand. Oh well.
I want to set up my Snapchat account to automatically post my story to this blog, I’m currently figuring out how to do that…
I’m starting to enjoy dumplings. For most of my life I didn’t get what the fuss was about, but now I get excited for them, and I don’t know why. They are little parcels of delicious joy. 🥟
On Sunday, I tried to repair my Canon 550D. It’s got a broken shutter, so I followed some tutorials to pull the whole thing apart and have a look. I managed to put it back together (twice!), but the camera still doesn’t work…

After searching to see if Tom was in New Zealand, I came across Will Darbyshire’s marvellous YouTube channel. He’s got this great style of cutting together beautiful shots, something I’ve been interested in trying myself. He also has a great taste in music.
I’ve been using LanguageTool for spell-checking these blog posts. They have an offline tool you can download, and this amazing person made a neat Vim plugin called vim-grammarous. After reading “Learn Vimscript the Hard Way” I have great respect for anyone who publishes vim plugins, it’s still on my todo list.
The Casper Glow Light looks amazing, and I love all the design elements, especially the way you can rotate it to change the brightness. There is a great article by Bolt, who tear it apart and show off how it’s built.

Tom Rosenthal - Big Pot of Hummus. Every time I eat hummus I start singing this song. It’s the perfect mix of emotions and food.
I got a big pot of hummus and it’s going good
Somewhere in the middle between glory and doom
And there’s someone that I’m lovin’ but they’re not in this room
But nothing’s gonna break my day!
Tigers in the Sky - Cool. This song perfectly captures a lazy summer day, and I love it.
What’s my mornin’
Without a little yawn?
Just sitting on my lawn
Watching the day roll by
slenderbodies - anemone. I have no idea what they are singing, but every time I hear this song I can’t stop from flailing my arms around.

What I’ve been reading this week.

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick
Colonly Defenders by Philip K. Dick
The ultimate in paranoia is not when everyone is against you but when everything is against you. Instead of “My boss is plotting against me,” it would be “My boss’s phone is plotting against me.”
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. I’ve actually been listening to the audio book which is pretty good. I’m a big fan of Norse mythology (I spent many hours of my childhood playing Age of Mythology) but I hadn’t heard many of the myths in this book.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. I picked this up at second hand book sale on Saturday. I’ve just started, and I can tell it’s going to be a favourite. After I post this I’m going to grab a cup of tea and continue reading it.

Grøunded . There is a new cafe that has popped up nearby, I had an enjoyable morning here sketching app ideas and gazing out the window. I think I will return here next Sunday.

Inspired by Will Darbyshire I tried recording some short videos and stitching them together.