What Happened to the World's Largest Tube TV?
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Posts • wonderfulfrog.com
My name is Devin Haska and this is my little slice of the internet I call home.
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Weekly Notes #11
I know, I know… it’s been a while. I’m not good with keeping up my writing habits. I try. A lot has happened since my most recent “weekly notes” post. Around October 2024 I started in the exciting world of freelancing! A company I worked for years ago was looking for help, so I figured let’s give this thing a shot. It worked! I managed to find contracts through former colleagues and contacts. As…
GMTK Game Jam Post-Mortem: 2025 Edition
Once again I participated in this year’s GMTK Game Jam ! There were over 9,000 games made this year. It ran from July 30th to August 3rd, 2025. This year I teamed up with Old School Blue to make Rumor Mill ! The theme this year was loop . There are many ways to interpret the theme - we saw a lot of games that had you playing the same levels repeatedly, drawing loops (lassos), moving in loops… a…
I got fooled by AI
Much like my streak of not catching COVID-19 being destroyed by my own foolish hubris, I have been fooled by AI. Which is probably not that exciting of a statement anymore, but this one felt especially surprising given that I was so thoroughly fooled. The silver bullet in this case was “Rat Detective Boogie” by stellar cruise on YouTube . The video itself does not mention AI in any way, but the…
Quick Update on RSS
I’m sorry in advance (or perhaps it’s too late) if I broke your RSS reader. I’ve been switching hosting platforms, and did not configure my deployment script correctly. It built the site as if I’d been developing locally, so all the URLs got borked in my various feed templates. I’ve since fixed the issue, but you’ll probably see a bunch of the same posts come up as new in your RSS reader. I’m…
Now Using 11ty V3
It feels like I’ve had this baking for far too long. I’m finally using Eleventy v3 . The upgrade process was so smooth. The Upgrade Helper plugin made the transition especially easy, and the only really challenging part was converting all of my JavaScript-related functions to use ESM instead of CommonJS (and that conversion process is opt-in, Eleventy still works great with CommonJS if preferred).…
Default App Changes in 2024
I ended up changing up preferred or default apps up in 2024, and thought it would be interesting to highlight the changes here. I’ll do this at the end of 2025 and see if anything else changes! I also updated my /uses page to match these new changes. iTerm2 to WezTerm Around May of 2024, iTerm2’s 3.5.0 patch notes mentioned the inclusion of ChatGPT. The addition was a forced change, albeit not…
13 Albums To Know Me
I saw a similar post from Jon Dueck that encouraged me to make my own version of this. True to the intent, I’m likely going to regret this post the moment I hit publish. Forcing myself to come up with my top 13 right now, that I can think of off the top of my head. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here The Beaches - Late Show David Bowie - Station to Station MF DOOM - MM…FOOD blink-182 - Take Off Your…
Watching in 2024
Looking back at my Letterboxd , I watched a total of 42 movies in 2024! Of those, 10 were movies released in 2024. Let’s take a look at my favourite movies (and TV) of the year! Movies I saw plenty of great movies this year, but there were a few I think that rose above the rest! Anatomy of a Fall I never thought I’d be so enthralled by a courtroom drama (but then again I do love Star Trek). I…
2024 Recap
There’s no use in sugarcoating it. This year sucked for me. The highlights (or lowlights, if you will) would be getting laid off - twice. I’ve spent at least half this year job hunting or in a state of thinking about job hunting. It’s demoralizing and soul-crushing. The market is brutal right now. Mental health-wise, I’ve had some incredibly low points. All that said though, I’m here. I’m upright.…
Weekly Notes #10
You know when you slip from a regular habit and you tell yourself “it’s okay, I’ll do it tomorrow,” or “I’ll start on it next week,” and then it time continually increases until your sense of dread keeps skyrocketing? That’s what happened since my last post. I endeavoured to write my one but never got around to it. I kept putting it off in favour of next week, or the following week, or the next…
Weekly Notes #9
Short and sweet this week. I had my first raid with my guild in World of Warcraft , and got to play the role of tank too! It was stressful, but I had a lot of fun too. We managed to take down a tricky boss (The Silken Court), and made a good attempt on the final one. Hoping next time we can do every boss! Links Just two links this week. Growth Hack I’ll bet most folks didn’t know that apps could…
Sugarcane
Today in Canada is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It’s also known as Orange Shirt Day. It is a day for listening. For this year’s day, we decided to see the documentary Sugarcane . A brief synopsis: An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve. What I saw was a stunning, raw, heart-wrenching…
Weekly Notes #8
It may have taken me a number of tries, but I’m very proud of unlocking this Bear form! I know it’s been a while since my last post. Life has been busy (but everyone says that). I haven’t felt like I’ve had the energy to write lately. I’ve spent a lot of time adjusting from my old routines and my new job. Speaking of… I’ve been at my new job for almost three months now. When my manager told me…
Weekly Notes #7
Apologies for missing last week’s notes. We just got back from vacation, and I was exhausted. Our trip was a ton of fun. One of my highlights was getting to go kayaking for the first time ever. My wife and I enjoyed it so much that we are looking into getting kayaks for ourselves. We got lots of family connection and spending time with friends. I didn’t end up winning that hat though, because I…
Weekly Notes #6
We’re on holiday, at last! The weather here is warmer than I’m used to but I’m managing. This week’s and next week’s posts will be light, but I’ll try to keep at least a few interesting tidbits in here. Links This week featuring no mentions of AI. The state of digital music purchases in 2024 I’d argue that the streaming model has affected the public perception on the value of music. Why pay for a…
Weekly Notes #5
We are gearing up for our summer vacation right now. The summer heat is here and it’s not been a great time. I don’t do well once the temperature approaches the mid 20s (celsius). We’re staying inside as much as we can with our air con. A short one this week as I’m bushed. Links One day that they won’t all be AI-focused. Figma pulls the plug on App Design You’ll remember from last week about my…
Weekly Notes #4
I can’t believe we’re already at the end of June. Tomorrow is Canada Day. Where does the time go? Config happened! Don’t forget to turn off your “Content training” setting in Figma. If you hadn’t seen, I wrote a quick post on finding new music . Links Oreo Kintsugi Honestly a great idea. Something that feels almost pointless but at the same time I’m so glad exists. Now will we ever see something…
Music today is great
I was reading a post by Nick Heer of Pixel Envy and it got me thinking. I’m sure we’ve all seen the comments in YouTube videos where people are saying “I was born in the wrong generation”, or “music sucks today”, or some variation of this theme. I believe we see these types of comments because the music genres those individuals listen to aren’t popular (or were and aren’t anymore). For example, I…
Weekly Notes #3
I’m glad I’ve managed to keep this going. My wife encouraged me to “block out” my weekend with a few activities and that has been a great idea. I went for a lovely walk with my dog today around town. We both got a good amount of exercise. Then we walked downtown to get ourselves a treat. I won’t lie, it’s been hard to keep my spirits up lately. But this small amount of activities has been a huge…
Weekly Notes #2
The job hunt continues. Here are some things I’ve been thinking about, reading about, listening to, and playing. On the weekend I took my Dad out to our local arcade and had a blast (and scored 12 million points in pinball, a personal best), then we got a lovely brunch. An excellent Father’s Day! Links No Web Without Women What a great website. There are so many women who we owe so much of the web…
Weekly Notes #1
Our cat Ramona but she’s been dithered! I don’t write enough anymore, and this felt low effort enough that I could at least write something . And then the ball started rolling and I wrote even more! These posts are great snapshots into what my life was like at this point. It can also be used to measure how much I’ve learned or how my opinions developed. I don’t love the generic “weekly notes”…
Laid off
May 8th was my last day at Metalab. I’ll miss my colleagues the most. I loved being able to work with so many talented people. I was surrounded by some very smart Engineers that I learned a lot from. It’s been almost 2 weeks. Since then, I’ve tried to take care of myself and not focus too hard (yet) on the job hunt. I’ve shored up my resume, reached out to some folks on LinkedIn , and talked to a…
Version 3
Welcome to version 3.0! This has been my pet project for the better part of a year, with plenty of false starts and scrapped ideas. First off, if what you’re after is the source code - here it is . If you’d like to learn more, read on dear reader! I’ve had a Figma file ready for months now that outlined my basic design - all I needed to do was build it. The problem was I could not settle on how I…
On a silver platter
The Tyee have a pretty damning summary of Trudeau’s latest political scandals . All of these are, frankly, quite embarrassing. Did you know that the contract for ArriveCan went to two dudes in a basement? A contract for an app the whole country (and those arriving to the country) would use. And that they didn’t even do the IT work themselves - it was subcontracted out to another company. The…
The photography behind Earthrise
The photography behind Earthrise I’ve always had a fascination with space and astronomy. I hope that one day I can go there. I believe with companies like SpaceX that dream might be a reality (even if the person running the company is a bozo). The photo in question is this one here , taken during the Apollo 8 mission by Bill Anders. Earthrise This video by Phil Edwards goes into the weeds of how a…
Lately
I know it’s been a long time since my last post. Over a year in fact. I’d like to do a recap on the major life events, because there’s been a lot! Instead I’d like to talk about other stuff that’s happened lately. I got a new monitor - my first foray into ultra-wide - the Dell U3423WE . It was a steep investment, but I’ve had my previous monitor for close to 10 years, so it’s a worthwhile…
It's Been a While
What’s happened since my last post? I got engaged! We bought a condo! I finished several projects at work! One of them even launched in the App Store and Play Store! I found out I love home projects (I love DIY)! I learned a lot about home electrical. We painted a lot! Almost the whole place. I got a Steam Deck and I love it! I got into custom keyboards for a bit. I’m kinda off the hobby now. I’d…
Recently
From last.fm I’d like to get back into the habit of writing these. I’ll start one month late for some reason, though. I’ve been following the Rogan/Young beef. It’s been interesting seeing the fallout of Neil Young pulling his music from the service. Other artists have followed suit like Joni Mitchell. Brené Brown stopped uploading new podcasts temporarily . As a result Spotify has updated their…
The Fellow Stagg: A Review of the Details
The Fellow Stagg is without a doubt the most money I will ever spend on a kettle. It’s been lauded in coffee circles, but how does it stack up on the small things? Let’s sweat over those details. Design and aesthetics The Fellow Stagg has an attractive design that would blend seemlessly into any home. They come in a variety of colours which helps it mesh with any design. It looks like a kettle. It…
2021 Ranked: Games
As we move onto the year ahead that will be 2022 (please don’t be the sequel everyone expects it to be), I always like to look at the past year and see what caught my attention. Let’s look at all the games I played in 2021. Keep in mind these didn’t all come out that year. Meanwhile I’ll rank them all. #16 — Spiritfarer I dig the universe for this game. I think there’s a lot to like. That being…
Checking In
I’ve dropped my regular writing habit as of late. I wanted to write a quick post to say I’m doing alright. What’s happened recently? I saw a documentary called The Rescue which was all about rescuing the boy’s soccer team that got stuck in caves that flooded. I expected to enjoy it, but this delivered an unexpected emotional impact. You kinda “know the plot” going into the movie, and yet it’s…
Stray Thoughts 3
I’ve been fortunate to have vacation time for a few days. It was much needed R&R after a long haul of a project. I got to spend time with my partner — we had a special day where we did everything she wanted! There was plenty of tea shopping. I picked up Metroid Dread on Friday. I’m a few hours in now. Here are my thoughts where I am: The game is hard! I didn’t expect this but I’m happy to see a…
Stray Thoughts 2
From last.fm Going strong on Diablo 2. I’ve reached the point where I have Hell Mephisto on farm now and I’m grinding for new gear. It’s a relaxing game to play with its rote paths. I like to get into the groove and kinda zone out. It’s meditative for me, in a sense. My exciting purchase this week is a Hobonichi Techo Planner . These things are popular enough that it requires buying them months in…
Stray Thoughts 1
From last.fm Been fiending Diablo 2: Resurrected since it came out. I’ve been playing the original on and off for years. It was the first game I can recall that I saved up my own money for. I went to the (now defunct) game store downtown and bought their copy in the display window outside. Before I knew it I made my Necromancer and slaying the demons of Hell! My Mom surely must’ve bought it for me…
Version 2
That’s a lot of lines! Welcome to version 2.0! I’ve been working away at the site for a few weeks now. There have been plenty of changes under the hood, and the front-facing side of things look similar. I took the time to do a visual refresh, taking inspiration (and sometimes copying) from my favourite sites from other developers. I’m happy with how things look now (and there is dark mode). There…
Week 4
Been a while since my last entry. Since then I went to Calgary again. I didn’t end up doing much this time. I was by myself for most of the trip. I underestimated how weird it feels not only being alone but in an unfamiliar place. It hit me harder than I ever expected. On the upside I managed to get work done on my site (which should be evident soon). I got a new pair of glasses. It’s been four…
Week 3
Nobody likes centipedes, and anybody who says otherwise is a liar! I’m noticing that these weekly posts are turning into a link dump rather than a weekly look at what’s going on in my life. I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do going forward, and I’ll have a think on it. On Friday No More Heroes III was released. I’ve been looking forward to a new NMH game for a while. Travis Strikes Again was…
Week 2
For me, this is an image I can hear More stories from victims at Blizzard . I’m saddened and disappointed to hear that Morhaime was largely an accessory and protected the harassers. I had him pegged as one of the last few good executives. I guess they don’t exist after all. This whole notion of coworkers being “family” needs to die. They can be friends, but the whole “family thing” is a gross…
Week 1
I’m trying a new format with my writing. When it comes time to write my monthly log, I usually have either too much or not enough to write about. I’m taking a page from a few other blogs I found that use “weaknotes”, which are Twitter-like posts of short (possibly random) thoughts. This was the first week back after my vacation. Coming back to work after a hefty vacation is always weird. It takes…
Recently
The west coast just got over the heat dome. In my neck of the woods, that was easily the hottest it’s ever been here. Our car at one point said 46ºC. We were ill-equipped to deal with the heat — no AC and living on the top floor of our building. To beat the heat we ended up booking a hotel for a few days. It was an expensive solution, but the sanity gained more than made up for it. I’m looking…
GMTK Game Jam Post-Mortem
This year I participated in the GMTK Game Jam with two friends. It lasted 48 hours from June 11th to 13th. My main responsibility was the art department. The theme was “joined together”, which meant you could take things literally and join stuff together, or maybe take things in a more narrative sense, like the way hands join together to form a handshake. That’s how we decided to take things…
Recently
Dexter’s Cafe I got vaccinated this month. Canada’s rollout has been slower than say the US, but come vaccine day I was in and out within 20 minutes (that’s including my 15 minute waiting period). There are rumours that the 8 week waiting period between doses might be shortened. On the one hand, I’m excited. The potential for things to “go back to normal”, as I imagine everyone is thinking. We can…
Recently
‘Curious!’ - the catchphrase of those ‘just asking questions’ Mister Gotcha is prime material when I complain about Apple and its ecosystem. There’s lots to complain about, but I’m a heavy user. Out of the options available, they are (in my opinion) the best choice as a consumer. That doesn’t mean they are perfect, though. Apple can (and should) do better. Reading Have you been feeling “blah”…
My vim setup
I thought it would be fun to talk about my vim configuration. Everyone does it differently, and I wanted to toss my hat into the ring. I don’t claim to have the best setup, but it works great for JavaScript (React, node) and TypeScript development. I keep my .vimrc and other related files up to date on GitHub . This has been a helpful exercise in evaluating what my configuration options do, and…
Recently
The lighting in this game is so good! Right up until the end of the month things were looking up pandemic-wise, but our province announced that more restrictions are going to be in place for the next few weeks. Cases have been trending upward for the younger age groups (20-30s). It felt like up until this announcement that were was a chance that summer might mean a vaccine for people in my age…
Recently
Look at them god rays Like Christmas, I am always shocked at how fast February goes by, even though it’s the same length (except Leap Years) every year. Here’s the latest. Listening DOOM - BORN LIKE THIS. (Repress) by MF DOOM News of MF DOOM’s passing right at the tail end of 2020 was the sucker punch nobody needed. The man was prolific as hell, and my paltry library of his material is only my…
Recently
It’s been a rough month. I’ve been struggling. I feel tired all the time and don’t know why. Smarter heads than me suggest it’s stress — with world events being what they are. I try to treat myself and keep up with exercising and going easy on myself when I don’t end up accomplishing much. It’s hard not to be hard on yourself. These posts have turned into more of a “here are interesting articles I…
A Primer on Canadian Government
In the last four years I’ve learned an awful lot about how the United States’ government functions at a high level, and even on specifics like the House and Senate processes. Meanwhile I’m foggy at best on how Canada’s government functions. I decided to educate myself. I will try my best to simplify into smaller chunks and focus on aspects I wasn’t aware of. This is not an exhaustive summary but…
Remember to be nice
Signal is seeing a jump in activity after WhatsApp recently made adjustments to their privacy policy . Coming from a paid, closed source, feature rich application like WhatsApp to an open source app like Signal can be a little jarring. Where is that favourite feature of mine? Why haven’t they prioritized it? So Signal has to come out and remind people in the community to be nice . The developers…