Awesome finds - July-August 2024

I've been shamefully offline for a couple of months due to a lot of personal and work stuff (plus it's summer, duh), so here are some things I enjoyed in July and August'24.

Books

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll: I still haven't decided how I feel about this book, but it was definitely an entertaining read. A chilling and very realistic description of being a young woman and witnessing (almost) your friends being killed, and then living with it while trying to convince people around you (like the police and parents) that you know better because you were damn there! Frustrating even typing that. Why I'm on the fence about this one, though - some parts of it are so cringe-worthy I literally had to skip them, as if they were written by another author. And it wasn't about "writing from another person's perspective", it was just bad writing. So that was bizarre.

In Universes by Emet North: again, I can't say I definitely liked this one, but the concept is pretty awesome. There may be a lot of novels about reaching the one person through time and lives and universes, but this is definitely the first one where in one of the worlds mothers have a disease where they split into a mass of different beings, like a swarm of bees? 🐝 Definitely a journey to make you dizzy.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller: I listened to this in audiobook format, which was more like a recording of a theatre performance, with closing doors and music and multiple narrators. Incredibly gripping, unbearably depressing. Felt shitty and uncomfortable 100% of the time, as if it was me who was mentally unwell and/or struggling both with and without a job.

Music

• Loveseat by Still Woozy: 🥰 emoji as the main mood of this album, such a nice collection of sweetest dearest silly lovesongs. just 🥰, feeling warm and loved and in love all over.

• Paradise State Of Mind by Foster The People: I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't really care, I'm just so happy FTP are back! ❤️ The record is fun and playful and summery - and surprisingly not as heartbreaking as usual, but maybe I just haven't listened to enough lyrics yet...
• Let's Go Back by Jungle: honestly, I didn't like the last Jungle album that much, but then I went to see them live recently and, gosh, I just can't get over how this band manages to be the essence of happiness and all the good and nice in this world in every sound. Safe to say I'm in love again, and this lovely little song is just what I needed (and you do, too).
• SUNNYSIDE by DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME: staying on the topic of sweet summer songs - this is a gem for youu indie kids! Also, on this blog we absolutely stan Dallon Weekes and wish him all the best (yes I was a fan of P!ATD, why do you ask? 😭)

• 3333 - Chance the Rapper: I am VERY cautious about Chance now but I allow myself to have hopes for his new album. Coloring Book is still one of my favourite albums of all time, and it was truly heartbreaking to get The Big Day after that (I don't talk about The Big Day). This sounds and feels as if there might be something good on the horizon. We'll see.

Podcasts

• LGBTQ Life in Weinmar Germany by You're Dead To Me: at this point I just trust You're Dead to Me with whatever topic they have for me and I am simply seated for anything. This episode is just brilliant - the level of facts and comedy is perfect, the guests are a-ma-zing and I would seriously listen to whatever Dr Brodie Ashton could tell me about history - such captivating storytelling skills!
• Mozart by You're Dead To Me: same but special from YDTM - the whole concert of a podcast with music, jokes and history. A very great 30 minutes (and I didn't know that Mozard had a very talented sister!). And you get the idea - You're Dead to Me is a really great podcast that I recommend 100%.
• Taj Mahal by Short History Of...: to be honest, I doubt I feel like something *checks notes* "built in the memory of the wife, who died <...> while giving birth to their 14th child" is sweet and somehow romanic (jfc, 14! children, and he had like 5 other wives as well), but anyway, the story is kinda interesting + idc about you, but I don't know much about India, only some very obvious things, so I'm usually curious about the most random topics ever.

Long articles

Chemical emitted by babies could make men more docile, women more aggressive: kind of amazing to think that babies are naturally armed with something to ensure their safe and healthy growth. Nature is wonderful, yadda yadda yadda, but on the other hand - we're so easily fooled by hormones, it's stupid!

How Lidl accidentally took on the big guns of cloud computing: geniunely surprised, but then again, this is Germany, so not at all surprised, if you know what I mean. But I love computing, IT and development for that matter - if you need something really badly, you can just build pretty much anything, having proper resources, and then it's going to do some good for (in most of the cases) some other development. Also, jeez, 7500 staff working only on this thing - isn't that amazing?

Lidl becoming a cloud infra provider wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card. pic.twitter.com/jaUIsfDpJb

— Chirag Modi (@modic123) August 24, 2024

How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?: very demure stylish, very depressing. A good overview of what global warming really is and how we track it, not just through temperature shifts and weird cataclysms.

Quick thoughts

Developer tools are different than tools for any other profession: yeah, it's actually really cool that we in development are practically building tools for ourselves all the time! Browser dev tools, frameworks, linters, IDEs and so on, it's all coded by someone! Bakers, doctors, drivers, lawyers don't make their own tools. Just thought that was a cool fact!

A Quest to find the most beautiful word in English language: at the time of writing it is diagnostics (naah), with brilliant, buoyancy, monologue and feasibility being in the top 10. What's yours? Love that serb is currently the second one in the Hall of Shame list (whyy?)

And some very summery flowers to finish this edition up!

Have a wonderful September! 🥀