Technically a Blog: MIDI, estimates, feeling, and reflections
Hello and happy Friday!
This month there are four blog posts for you to enjoy. (There are also a total of four, I'm not saying there's one that's not for you to enjoy). It was a pretty good month, and I'm happy with these. The piece "Feel, don't think" might be my favorite of my own writing, so I hope you enjoy it as well.
I'm really moving along on one of my take-a-joke-way-too-far projects, which is what the MIDI stuff I've been doing is all for. That's why that's up first. You'll hear more about that very soon, and the project is going to stretch my creative abilities: it involves coding, musical composition, and performing.
There was a lot in 2024 that was good, and a lot that was challenging. Here's to hoping that you, and I, and everyone in our communities have the strength and support for whatever awaits us in 2025. There might be dark times, but there's still joy. There's still art, and writing, and music. There's still friends. Thank you for reading, and for this form of connection between us; it's more important now than ever for people to connect.
Blog updates
- Parsing MIDI messages in Rust: I'm working on a secret project (ssshhhh) and it uses MIDI, so naturally, I had to shave that yak and write my own MIDI parser. In Rust, of course. It is a fun whirlwind through a protocol with incredible longevity and a peek at how to use parser combinators.
- Estimating projects sells them short (and that's okay): Estimates are really valuable, and they're also a way of taking on risk. Doing a fixed-price project based on your estimates means you're taking on a risk in a similar way to some risky stock trades. So... what do we do with this information?
- Feel, don't think: Here's a story that's about how I learned to play triplets better, but it's actually about so much more than that. It's different from my usual writing about tech—it's about something fundamentally human—but it's just as important to my professional life as any code is.
- Reflecting on 2024, preparing for 2025: This is my final post of 2024, where I talk about what happened for me in the year, personally and professionally. And then I talk about my goals for next year. I hope you have a wonderful 2025!
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❤️ Nicole