Every year since 2015, Eric Wastl creates a two-part programming problem for each of the 25 days of Advent. He publishes a new problem every day at adventofcode.com at exactly midnight EST which is 22:00 the day before for me in MST. The last two years, I decided to do the problems as soon as they came out and streamed my problem solving sessions on my Twitch channel and uploaded them to my Youtube channel. The last two years I updated a blog post about each of the days, and I will try and do that this year as well.

This week, my company (Beeper) had our fall work retreat in Toronto, Canada. It has been nearly six months since our March retreat in Amsterdam and it was great to see everyone again and meet some of the new team members. I have also written about our four retreats prior to Amsterdam on this blog.

One of the main goals of each retreat is to provide opportunities to connect as a team on a personal level. There were three new team members present at this retreat.

This weekend I flew out to Los Angeles to see my friend Ethan Cranston. He is a former student of mine at Mines, and we got to know each other well because he was one of the most consistent in-person attendees during the hybrid COVID semesters. He now works at SpaceX and since I have a ton of Southwest points, I decided to visit him somewhat on a whim.

I recently became a homeowner. Here are a couple of reflections that I’ve had about this new phase of life:

• The permanence of owning my own house is nice. The first time this really hit me was when I was putting up some decorations. I realized that it was my walls that I was nailing things in to. I don’t have to answer to anyone about the holes in my wall if I move out.

For the last six years, Mines ACM has hosted a High School Programming Competition (HSPC) modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). I wrote about the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 competitions on this blog. The problems from every year are new and written by Mines students and some Mines alum specifically for the competition. This year, I wrote four of the problems and helped Ethan Richards with organizing the competition.

I woke up late on my last day in Amsterdam, and missed breakfast at the hotel. After saying goodbye to the remaining coworkers at the hotel for the retreat, I went to drop off my bag at the hotel where I am staying for one night before heading back home.

I then headed back into Amsterdam city and walked around the streets admiring the beauty of the city. I stopped for lunch at a restaurant and had some very nice pizza. I was planning on renting a bike, but it was drizzling on and off so I opted against it; walking in the rain was enough for me.

This week, my company (Beeper) had our first retreat of the new year in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We aim for about three retreats a year, though due to holidays and a recent push towards our beta exit milestone, it has been a little while since we have all gotten together. The last retreat was in Mexico City in October and before that we had three other retreats. The goal of each retreat is to provide an opportunity to connect as a team on a personal level, discuss future plans, and reflect on the progress we have made.

Today I went to visit the Van Gogh Museum in the morning, and the Anne Frank House late in the evening. In between, I walked around the city, and met up with my coworkers for dinner.

One of the reasons I chose the hotel that I did was that it was a very short walk over to the Van Gogh Museum. I had tickets for 10:00 at the museum with an audio tour. I recommend getting the audio tour as it gave some good background about Van Gogh and his life story.

Today I once again am venturing across the pond for a work retreat. This time, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I’ll get there mid-day Saturday and I’ll spend the afternoon and all of Sunday sightseeing before meeting up with coworkers on Monday for a week of in-person work!

My dad kindly took me to the airport this morning. Security was pretty crowded, but I have TSA precheck which makes it so I don’t have to take everything out of my bag and take off my shoes. I got to the airport in plenty of time, and I had brunch at Panda Express before heading over to my gate.

For the first time since 2020, FOSDEM was held in-person in Brussels. FOSDEM is one of the largest gatherings of open source enthusiasts in the world every year. My employer, Beeper, funded my flight, and I decided to attend. It was a great experience! I learned a lot and have a long to-do list of projects to try out. I also really enjoyed interacting with the Matrix community and reconnect with many of the people who I’d met at the Matrix Community Summit in Berlin last year and meet a bunch new people as well.