Happy June! Happy Pride!

May was exceptionally warm in the UK, and I spent much of it sheltering from the sun. I really don’t enjoy the heat and 30°C is Too Warm.

Jay is always keen to remind me that churches stay cool during heatwaves because of their thermal mass, and I took full advantage of that – a church in Hertford became a pleasant spot to read for several days; I was almost cold at times!

I’m (still) trying to sell my house, with little progress – I’m in a weird limbo state where the house is clean and depersonalised, so it feels a bit like I’ve already left, but I’m still living there. Please keep your fingers crossed that things pick up soon!

When I wasn’t melting in the heat, I spent two bank holiday weekends with my partner, demolished a chunk of my book pile, and I spoke at a Tailscale community meetup in London. (I’m doing a write-up for the Tailscale blog.)

The news for trans people in the UK is grim, with EHRC guidance on toilets which is trying to legitimise transphobia. I’ve been fortunate to avoid any direct consequences myself, but these are not fun times. But I continue to find moments of joy and delight from being trans, and I refuse to be afraid of bigotry.

Looking ahead, I have several fun theatre trips planned for June, and I’m enjoying all the extra sunlight in the evenings. I don’t love the heat, but summer has its high points.

What have I been writing?

I am now dug out of the “writing about my new static site generator” hole, with two articles about how I’ve built my own livereload functionality: Watching for file changes on macOS and Waiting for website changes in the browser.

I also wrote about the web tech I use to test my other static sites, in particular Using Playwright to test my static sites and Rendering a chat thread in CSS and JavaScript.

Plus just a handful of notes:

• Disable AirPods charging notifications
• Testing the width of a page on a mobile device using Playwright
• Format "human-readable" JSON with FracturedJSON
• GitUp can't diff text files larger than 8MB

What's making me smile?

Normally by April I’m considering a handful of books for my end-of-year favourites post, but this year was a bit of a wash until I hit May, when suddenly I had several great books at once.

🌾 Linda Šejić Punderworld is a graphic novel that depicts Persephone and Hades as young lovers who are head over heels for one another. It’s a bouncy and charming take on a classic tale, and I enjoyed the just-released volume 2.

🧛‍♀️ Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment is a beautiful blend of the absurdity of military and gender roles. I’ve often heard that Terry Pratchett had a more nuanced understanding of gender than many modern writers; I’m starting to see where that sentinent comes from.

🏗️ Uketsu’s Strange Buildings is a collection of mysteries and buildings that appear unrelated, but weave together into a gorgeous mystery. I love how diagrams are used to enrich the story, and I want to check out the author’s other books.

🪐 Finally, pixel artist Lay’s rendition of the Titan landing from this season of For All Mankind is gorgeous, and I want a version of it on my wall.

Have a wonderful Pride Month! I’ll email you again in July.

Best,

~ Alex