It was mostly about re:Invent (Weeknotes #24-49)

AWS re:Invent 2024

I spent most of the week in Las Vegas for the annual AWS re:Invent conference. I was there with several work colleagues and I enjoyed spending time with them outside the office. The conference itself was a whirlwind of activity, and as an introvert being around 60,000 other attendees was a bit overwhelming at times. It was time well spent and on balance a positive experience, but I sure am glad to be back home. Here are a some highlights by day:

① Arrived in Las Vegas early Sunday morning. After checking into the hotel, I checked into the conference and did some of the fun activities before the really big crowds descended, including: drawing on the re:Invent chalk board, going down the slide, playing with AI-generated art from an old cigarette machine, and more. We finished the day with some Tijuana-style street tacos at Tacos El Gordo.

② On Monday the conference sessions got underway, but I carved out some time for a (free!) tattoo.

③ Tuesday was another full day of conference sessions from sunrise until dinner.

④ Started Wednesday with the 5k race I had been training for, followed by more conference going.

⑤ By Thursday my brain was mush so I went to see the actual flamingos at The Flamingo before wrapping up the week at re:Play, a chance to unwind with food, music, and games at the end of the conference. I’m very grateful to this group of most excellent colleagues and friends who made it a great week. (More pics)

Christmas Cometh

📚 We started working our way through this year’s McSweeney’s Advent Calendar, which is a delightfully weird take on the countdown to Christmas. 10/10 highly recommend.

🎄 It’s official, the Christmas seasson is here now that the Christmas tree is up and fluffled and illuminated in full color (or white) LED glory. There are no ornaments yet, but that’s someone else’s department.

Looking Out For People

❤️ I added Adam’s People Pledge to my 88x31 board.

Stay Weird, Internet

🔄 Daniel Middel first popped up on my TikTok feed a week or so ago and now I can’t seem to get enough of him hula hooping in drag.

Watching

Couple more episodes of Shrinking season 2. How is this show so good?

Fly Me to the Moon was WAY better than I expected it to be.

🏈 SMU rallied late to tie the ACC championship game, but couldn’t hold off Clemson in the final seconds. My Mustangs probably won’t make the College Football Playoff, but who knows?

Reading

🍷 The flights between Columbus and Las Vegas gave me a lot of time to knock out several more volumes of Drops of God by Tadashi Agi.

That’s all from this end. I hope you have a good week!