Hello world!
I have been unwell so this will be a very quick look at the week that was. I am very thankful for all the work I put into automating the generation of these weeknotes. Without that work, I would have been very likely to skip publishing given how sick I am. I haven’t missed a week all year so I am pleased to keep that streak going.
🔖 My Favorite Stuff from the Internet This Week
- Vacuum Robot Overview
- I don’t have a vacuum robot but I know where I’ll start when it comes time to look into it. I found this by way of the equally awesome Valetudo, a project whose slogan is “Free your vacuum from the cloud ”.
- SQLite in Production: Optimizing WAL Mode, Concurrency, and VFS Layers for Low-Latency App Servers
- I am a big fan of SQLite and I love to see folks making it work in serious production situations.
- Dev Diary: Rewiring the XM Network Under Extreme Pressure — Ingress
- This is a pretty interesting write-up that gives some background on the engineering behind my favorite game, Niantic’s Ingress.
🐦⬛ Birding
I saw a few American Goldfinches dining on sunflowers that have matured and are now drooping as they prepare to drop their seeds. I specifically left these around to entice these specific birds. I’m so pleased that it worked.
The same birds have also been enjoying the window-mounted bird feeders I installed.
They are tricky to photograph but this gives you an idea of what Plop sees.
🌱 Gardening
The first batch of sunflowers have mostly bloomed and the second batch are preparing to bloom (though I’ve had a few bloom already). That means things are in a bit of a lull. Between that and how sick I was, I don’t have much to say about gardening this week. I’ve found an opportunity to include my favorite flowers of the week above — and below.
I started contributing to the National Gardening Association’s website at garden.org as heybrie.
🍿 Movies
I made fantastic progress on my “watch (at least) 26 movies in 2026” goal while enduring sickness and fatigue.
- The Dink, 2026 - ★★½ (Watched: 2026-07-30)
- Sharper, 2023 - ★ (Watched: 2026-07-31)
- How to Make a Killing, 2026 - ★½ (Watched: 2026-07-31)
- Rashomon, 1950 - ★★★★½ (Watched: 2026-08-02)
Most of these movies were forgettable and not very good but I was really taken by Rashomon. I am so pleased I finally saw it. A few pieces about the movie that I just can’t stop thinking about:
This film was my introduction to the work of Akira Kurosawa and wow, I get it. I want to watch Seven Samurai next.
I track movies on Letterboxd if you want to follow along.
📣 Social
As 🐈⬛ brie biker-ranza 🚲, I posted a few sunflower photos that I’ll include here because they’re beautiful:
These sunflowers are the Orange Mahogany Bicolor variety.
Thanks!
— Brie