Practical.li provides free online books covering practical guides to Clojure programming and development workflows. Practicalli Engineering Playbook contains specific guides across the full spectrum of software development.
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The heatwave dissipated briefly, although its still very warm weather with little respite overnight.
Movies this week
The Running Man was a well-made action movie, following the original story much more closely than the Arnold Schwarzenegger version. Apart from the visuals, there wasn't much new with the movie and lacked some of the humour that the first movie had. Worth a watch, but not something I would be eager watch again.
Sponge Bob: The search for SquarePants is the latest animated film from the franchise. There is something about the character that is enjoyable, I guess Spong Bob is just the right amount of silly. Very eclectic music choices, including "Holiday in Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys (without the lyrics of course).
A mixture of the hottest days ever recorded in the United Kingdom (39 Celsius) and tropical storms set the scene for this week. Exercise in the early mornings and sleeping in the afternoons is helping get through this week.
I am not sleeping so well at night, but getting just about enough sleep each day.
Monday was a ride to the Archive Cafe, taking the longer route around Redhill Aerodrome for a nice 105km ride.
Wednesday was a trip to the Velobarn. I had not slept much the night before and was awake around 5am. As I couldn't sleep I got ready to cycle and when out just after 6am for a warm-up ride along the A21. There was a nice breeze to keep my cool.
Thursday was another early start, 7am for a ride to Chiddingstone cafe with Emma, indulging in a slice of American Cheesecake.
Movies
The Old Guard 1 & 2
Its an okay action romp with interesting characters and background story.
The second movie seems to be a 2-part movie after ending half way through its storyline. It is unclear if Netflix (or anyone else) will make Old Guard 3 and complete the story.
Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose
A fun and quirky movie with Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver and Christopher Lloyd. A parapsychologist is intrigued by a story of a talking Mongoose that lives with a family on the Isle of Man. They set of to investigate if this is real.
Its interesting story about what 'real' actually means. What is real to one person may not be real to another. Its a very subtle story that touches on very deep feelings and beliefs that we all have.
Simon Pegg gives a stirring and enjoyable performance.
TV Shows
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Ironically the fact that this series shows its age is actually a positive reinforcement on some of the light social commentary it tries to convey.
Its a fun show and has very likeable characters, even if the story is fairly predictable. It is nice to watch something for the pure joy and escapism it provides.
Duck Dogers In the 24th and a half century
Looney Toons cartoons took the Daffy Duck character (one of their most richly developed in my opinion, up there with Bugs Bunny) and turned them into a Spaceman. There is something about this particular cartoon that always makes me laugh.
In Babylon 5, the character Michael Garibaldi (Chief of Security) refers to Daffy Duck as the "Egyptian God of Frustration", which is a very succinct way to sum up that character.
The Devils Hour
I crime mini-series with Peter Capaldi as the 'devil'. Its a curious story and I am enjoying the distraction from the heat of the day.
Its the Dragon Ride at the weekend and I am almost over the flu that knocked me out for the last week or so. I had some trouble with a heart rate monitor, but managed to resolve the issue.
There are engineering works on the train route I take for the Dragon Ride. I got in touch with GWR support via WhatsApp and they said 'the train should run on time', with a caveat that the train could be cancelled if the engineering works overran.
Luckily a friend can take me in their car and put my bike on their bike rack. This seemed the more reliable option.
I am still fighting off the remnants of the flu, which keeps persisting despite serious levels of vitamins and paracetamol. I am taking the opportunity to sleep as much as I can this week.
Today was the first session of the AI School from Google. The first session was a fluff piece, trying to inspire, but I found it too much hype and lacking in substance. Hopefully it gets better as the week progresses.
A cold but sunny start to this week should turn into a mini heatwave by the weekend (maybe). No excuse to go cycling several times this week.
Practicalli work this week was on the Sustainable Life and Cycling books.
The Megalinter GitHub workflow generated a failing issues on the Practicalli Journal repository yesterday, indicating it failed because it couldnt find something to check.
Took the Bianchi in to get a new bottom bracket fitted. The bike has lasted 20 years and a lot of kilometers. Unfortunately there wasn't a Strava back in 2006 when i got the Bianchi bike, so most of the distance on the bike was never captured until 2019.
The week started full of promise but quickly fell to pieces 🤣 By the middle of the week I was starting to get some traction again and things were good again by the weekend.
A fairly pragmatic view of 'AI' tools was discussed in the DevEx Summit 2026 online conference.
After a false start, I have a fully working road bike again and am back on the road again. A nice long and hilly ride to end the week and a lazy Sunday recovering and organising camping gear for the Dragon Ride trip.
May the fourth (be with you) is a celebration of Star Wars.
As it also happens to be a public holiday (bank holiday) in the UK, a few friends and I did a celebratory cycle ride to Chiddingstone cafe for some delicious cake.
Feeling exhausted over the weekend and think I had a virus slowing me down. I dragged myself out for a few rides and by the weekend I was feeling much better.
The weather is much nicer this week so more training for the Dragon Ride in June. A typical ride at the start of the week with a huge 180km ride to Brighton and back mid-week.
Added the Practicalli install scripts for Neovim to the Neovim and Engineering Playbook websites.
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