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DaedTech Digest: So Long, Austin, and Thanks for All the Wildlife

For the last… 7, weeks, I think… we’ve been in Austin, Texas.  In that time, I’ve settled into answering slow travel questions in the digests except for last week, when I described killing a scorpion.

Now, though, I’m going back to a little journal blogging.  We’re on the move again because our lease is up.  But we’ve had a great time in Austin (technically, unincorporated Hudson Bend, on Lake Travis, but with an Austin mailing address).  In no particular order, here are some things we’ve done.

I’m not sure whether or not we did our part to “keep Austin weird.”  But I do feel as though we got a nice taste of life here, and that we enjoyed it.

But the thing I might miss most about staying in this fun house, near a lake, and in the woods, is the wildlife (scorpions notwithstanding).  From our balcony, we have seen an armadillo, a huge owl, a bunch of bats, a skunk, buzzards, hawks, a fox, miscellaneous dogs and cats, and a family of deer that lives in our back yard here.

As I’ve said before, I love doing the tourist thing.  But sometimes, the best part of a place we stay can be the ambiance and general vibe as you sit around reading or working.

In a nod to that idea, here’s a shot of a doe looking at me calmly from about 20 feet away, out of our kitchen window.

 

Picks

  • I picked this in the Freelancers Show episode that we just recorded, so I’ll pick this again.  I’ve been actively consuming Youtube channels to learn more about the medium, and I really like this guy, Jarvis.  It’s a mix of programmer topics and other stuff (he was, for a while, I guess, a programmer at Google).
  • Speaking of Youtube, if you’re looking to get going there, this tool, TubeBuddy, can help you navigate best practices and channel optimization.
  • I’ve been reading this book, The Runelords, lately.  If you like fantasy/sci-fi, it’s an interesting fantasy story, with a really unique system of magic.  Imagine a world where you could confer your strength or your smarts or your sight onto another person, to make them twice as effective at each, respectively.  Now, imagine the political ramifications of such a thing being possible.  It makes for a fascinating book and world.
  • Oh, and if you want to go on the Austin Taco Tour, you should totally do that.

The Digest

  • On a relatively recent Facebook Live, Amanda and I broadcast from a scenic spot and talked about what we read, listen to, and watch.
  • Here’s a new episode of the Freelancers Show, where the other panelists and I discussed how to raise prices on existing clients.
  • And, finally, here’s the latest in my “Time to Joy” series on Youtube, where I record my journey from finding a tool to having it installed and being useful for me.  This episode’s subject?  CodeRush.  Watch to see how long it took me to go from zero to joy with CodeRush.

And, as always, have yourselves a great weekend.