September Roundup

First off, thank you everybody who subscribed to Hello From Tomorrow! I'm genuinely touched that so many people still remember me fondly and want to see what I'm up to on the other side of the world! That said, this first newsletter is a bit of a work-in-progress; I had grand plans to flesh it all out during at least one of the two 30-plus-hour travel days between Adelaide and Baltimore, but it's hard to work on a laptop when the seat in front of you is reclined all the way back. Rest assured now that I'm back into the normal swing of things, posting frequency will ramp back up to where I want it, and the newsletter will contain highlights, links to fun things I've read, funny memes that deserve to be showcased, and maybe some history or factoid tidbits if I'm feeling froggy.

The month started with a hard loss: Rooley, my beloved feline companion, died at the age of 17.5 years. I left him in the care of my friend Randy when I moved to Australia, and it warms my heart that Rooley touched Randy's life the same way he touched mine, with his own personal brand of affection and stubbornness. I'm grateful he lived out his life in comfort and love and not isolated in quarantine at the port of entry. I knew I wanted to memorialise him, but I didn't want that to lead off the new publication, so a hasty hello was crafted.

The big event for me this month was my first visit back to the United States since I moved to Australia in 2023. Don't fret if I missed you this time around — this trip was mainly to check in on my parents, particularly after my mom faced a few health complications. I'm pleased to report that everybody seems to be doing well, and while there are still some challenges, things are on the up-and-up and under control. Ben was even able to fly into Baltimore for a day, marking the first time all four of us were under one roof since our trip to Disneyworld in January 2023. Marc took a pass on this trip, but we're hoping the two of us can take a longer holiday to America around Easter of next year.

We didn't take any pictures. We never do; we all hate how we look in them.

I did get to see a handful of folks, and I'm glad to see that age has brought wisdom and self-knowledge far beyond what any of us were capable of in high school. Most of their stories aren't mine to tell, but I'm vigorously cheering everyone along their journeys.

For October, life will settle back into more of a routine. Marc is going to PAX Aus next weekend; I'm plane'd out so it's my turn to stay back and watch the cats. Beyond that, our work will start to ramp up for the rest of the year. We've got some fun events planned in 2027, but for now it's time to get back to business as usual.

Good Read

• "If we do not stop to help each other, what do we become?" - Jeff Atwood is the founder of Stack Overflow, which has seen a decrease in participation comensurate with the increase of "vibe coding" using LLMs and other AI tools. In this blog entry, he shares (with permission) a response from a reader who found the human element of a question-and-answer community crucial to his education. I have reservations about the AI-ification of everything, and this puts into words a loss I was feeling but was unable to articulate.

Good Meme

Vintage Internet

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation is at least 26 years old, paleolithic by internet standards, but it's just as funny now as it was then. Made with the help of the Microsoft Powerpoint Autocontent Wizard, I'm sure it's the widest gulf between the quality of the slides and the quality of the "speaker's notes." Be sure not to miss the making of essay.