Lots of stuff on the go:

• I updated the In progress page with my latest, er, progress
• I delivered a huge solo project that involved the end to end design of a web application, from data modelling to business logic and user experience with over 40 mock-up screens and tens of thousands of words of documentation
• I came close to applying for either a PhD in political science or a bachelor of laws degree (LLB). I got around it only a few days before the application deadlines, so I will push it off for a year
• I am learning some new corporate presentation techniques as part of a new contract job
• I took on a second mentoree and am learning Trello and Slack for real as we ramp her up to digital marketing glory
• I read a book about GPS, I finished one about digital privacy, and I started one that while in 1940s USA has relevance with the events leading up to and since the 2016 US elections

I haven’t shared much in the last few weeks, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy.

Books

Currently getting through The Undoing Project, which will lead to start Thinking Fast and Slow over again (I was only about 50 pages in before getting distracted over a year ago.) I got distracted from reading a book about the surveillance state from Bruce Schneier.

I bought a book about how GPS is changing our lives and another book from Kevin Kelly about 12 technological forces that are shaping the future.

Typography

After reading an article about Seal Team 6 and war crimes accusations at The Intercept, I wanted to know what fonts were used on the site. I came across FontsInUse.com This is the kind of site that could keep me busy for hours. (And the font is called TI Actu.)

Writing

I published a couple of articles on Medium and they got picked up by various publications there, resulting in some good traffic. The best part—better than page views—is to see what parts of an article people have highlighted.

Work

I joined a co-working space called WeWork in Montreal and promptly scored a contract where I proof-read a Chinese to English translation of web content for a financial services firm.

Play

I figured out how to get really high skills scores in Forza Horizon 3. It involves ripping donuts in a palm tree plantation with lots of fences nearby to chain scores together.

My car of choice right now is a 2017 Ford GT Supercar.

The Economist Holiday Double-Issue

For a number of years, the Holiday double-issue of The Economist has been one of the regular things I have most looked forward at Christmas time. It is one of those reasons that I can say I wish every month, if not every day, had a Christmas in them. There is typically a wide range of long-form articles on all sorts of topics designed to pique the interest of any polymath worth his or her salt. So I started my day with some reading of this year’s edition.

Database modeling

Last week saw me start a new consulting gig where I am being asked to essentially design and coordinate the development of a web-based application. (That’s one of the reasons that I have not updated this site in 2 weeks.)

The first order of business is to figure out the data that needs to be captured and what needs to happen to it once captured. So I found myself doing database modeling in Microsoft Word. I know just enough about the basics to get myself into trouble. So I figured that I would spend some free time before Christmas supper making the most of my LinkedIn Premium subscription and learn as much as I could about relational databases in general, and data modelling in particular. I am there enjoying Foundations of Programming: Databases.