Category Archives: Random stuff

Not adventures :)

Oct7

Pride and interviews in New England

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Thursday, 04-June-2026 through Sunday, 07-June-2026

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been back to New England… a full month, almost!

Well, this time it’s for a new reason – not family, not friends (though I was excited to see both!), instead it was triggered by an invitation. An invitation to interview for a possible new job! That’s right… I applied to maybe half a dozen roles in the US, compared to my 350+ applications in Ireland, and they flew me out for an interview.

Tells a bit of a story about how experience translates across the Atlantic, doesn’t it?

But while I’d love to rant about that whole situation, and may well do so in a future post, today we consider the fun. I was flown out, and set up with both a hotel and a car rental. I sprung for Andrea’s flight, as it only seemed fair, and so we got an impromptu vacation out of it. A whirlwind one, mind you – arriving on a Thursday, interviewing on a Friday, and then flying back out late in the evening on Saturday… but you know what? It was freaking awesome.

Seriously – so much fun.

The interview? It went smooth and clean – no concerns, no hassles, and it was incredibly cool to get to see a production floor working at that scale and capacity (Apologies, but I’m being a bit intentionally vague there).

The exploring in the city? Lovely and fun – we even got to see a play on Friday evening, which was brutally powerful and incredibly well acted. Next to Normal, put on by the Trinity Rep in Providence. Neither of us were prepared for the crying and emotions it brought… but god damn, were Andrea and I happy that we went.

On Saturday? We got to hit up Boston Pride! The first of a whole series of Pride Month celebrations, as it would turn out, but for now it was just a fun point of excitement. To be fair, Pride itself was… okay. I mean, we got there near the end of the celebrations, so everyone was starting to wind down. The parade / march had happened, and let’s be honest here – Boston has been doing Pride for ages. It’s not like the march is fighting against people actively opposing it… or, at least, the folks opposing are in such a minority that I’ve never heard of them. Instead, it seemed like it was a simple and fun day in the park for our Gen Z counterparts. I mean, seriously – it felt like 93% of the people there were 20 years younger than me.

So, yeah. It was a whirlwind trip, no two ways about it.

And, as it turns out, it would be just the beginning…

Oct3

We went to Westport!

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Friday, 22-May-2026 through Sunday, 24-May-2026


Adventure is out there! Out West! Out in the wild frontier!

I mean, it’s also in Westport, a cute little Irish town a ways North of Galway.

This time, we adventured a bit differently. Normally, we’d rent a car, do a drive, and pop around to various spots around town, or around the region. This time, though, we decided to go a bit more slowly. We didn’t have plans, we didn’t have a car, and we didn’t have specific destinations in mind. Andrea had found a perfect train itinerary that took us to a lovely Bed and Breakfast, booking directly with the hosts after ensuring it was a fairly easy walk from the train station.

Simple, easy, and relaxing was the goal. An escape from the city, an escape from the chaos, and an escape from the constant go-go-go anxiety that we’d both been battling over work for the past months.


It worked well. It worked quite well.

We walked, we enjoyed the cute hospitality of the bed and breakfast, and we took our time. We found small little gems around town – from pretty squares to a restaurant run by a Bulgarian couple, serving up a fusion of Bulgarian cuisine and Irish cooking! We walked, took in the views, and found a really cool boat tour that took us around the harbor, through the history of the port, and to see the seals sunning themselves nearby.

Crazily enough, I think my favorite part of the trip was the train rides there and back, though. Somehow the views were just perfect both times, and the sense of calm serenity as we just relaxed and let the conductor do their thing was exactly what was needed.

Oct1

Turbines

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Turbines

May, 2026

Did I mention that I’ve been on a 3D printing kick?

Well… Not all of my projects are for my neighbors, or friends, or Andrea and my’s kitchen. This one was just for me. For my own curiosity, and for fun.

I’ve always appreciated the idea of being off-grid. Being independent, self-sufficient, and self-contained. It’s why I enjoy backpacking so much; everything I need, I’ve got in my backpack. I go, I set up camp where I see fit, and I can survive with what I’ve got.

To that end, I’ve loved the idea of portable power generation – Ideally a light solar panel, but what about a wind turbine? I’ve seen the countless “hacks” where people put a small windmill on their car for car camping… so you know what? Let’s make one!

So I did. It’s neat! It can make a bit of power, and the bearings work flawlessly, letting it twist and turn in the wind, and letting the Archimedes spiral blade spin like crazy. Transferring that power into a storage medium… well, that’s a PCB-problem for another day.

For now?

This thing looks pretty dang cool, and the mechanics work beautifully. I’ll call it a win.