Chronicles of a man on a journey. Husband. Father of three. Designer. Fauxtographer. Goa forever. Since MMXII.
2020 curtain call
2020 made me realise I have so much to be thankful for. Much of the year was spent indoors with my family; and yet it seems we accomplished so much together, and as individuals.
In contrast, I’ve heard so many stories from folks I personally know, and it’s easy to see the year has not been kind to so many. So much physical suffering, financial hardship, emotional trauma and loss of human life — I realise how privileged I am just to be alive and healthy.
I am praying that the coming year brings healing, peace and a sense of normalcy to the world as quickly as possible. That’s all we can ask for, I guess.
Christmas magic
I’ve always believed Christmas has a certain sense of peace and joy about it that is incredibly healing:
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale
It was Christmas as usual for us this year, keeping pandemic protocol in mind, of course. Vinnie and I just thought of different ways to make it special for the girls, and we had a great time making and baking all the Christmas goodies as a family. Keeping aside the fact that half of the treats mysteriously disappeared as they were being prepared, things turned out great!
I decided to orchestrate the whole “Santa visited” show this time, and so we got the girls all excited decorating the house with the Tree and Crib. On Christmas Eve, we turned on the Star and left cookies on the window sill.
And guess what? Santa really visited! He ate up all the cookies and even left a letter for the girls!
This is perhaps my favorite Christmas memory so far — the excitement in their voices and the joy in their eyes! Sometimes children deserve to have their prayers answered. The letter took me around 2.5h in total: counting design, print runs, making the envelop and destroying all evidence of the raw materials.
The season (as has the entire year) was punctuated by multiple trips to the beach. We found a stretch nearby which was particularly deserted and spent many a relaxing evening with the sea breeze on our faces and sand between our toes.
All in all, it’s been a refreshing break from our work and community schedules, and a nice way to end a hectic year.
Happy holidays.
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention.
So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.
LR Knost
WFH Setup 2.0
After working remote fulltime for about 2 years, I finally got around to getting my workspace a minor upgrade.
There were two significant upgrades:
2019 MacBook Pro that Falcon.io sent me to replace my personal 2015 MacBook Air
The MBP is excellent with its 256GBSSD, 16GBRAM, Retina display and Touch Bar. The only part I’m slightly concerned with is the Butterfly keyboard and how it might get affected in the long-term by the dust in my room.
I’ve been using the P27H-20 display for over a week now and the display itself is excellent. Colours are very accurate (it has a 99% sRGB rating). It’s a 27-inch QHD display, so it hits the sweet spot in terms of non-Retina pixel density which is always important to consider when you’re pairing any external monitor with an Apple laptop.
The monitor is also USB‑C, so it takes audio and video from the MBP while simultaneously keeping it charged. Most of the time. Well, there’s a firmware bug that I discovered only 2 or 3 days later, which does not affect only this model but most of the new displays Lenovo has introduced in H22020. Anyway, I loved this display too much to return it, and it seems Lenovo are in the final stages of developing a fix, so it should be only a matter of time before it works as intended.
Here are some photos.
No setup is complete without the customary Ikea fake plants and a few Funko vinyl figures. I only had budget leftover for one, so it had to be Scarecrow from Batman: The Animated Series. I’m collecting a rogues gallery and I have my sights set on Phantasm, The Penguin, Bane and others from DC. Marvel unfortunately only makes Funko bobbleheads, which do not interest me whatsoever.
Anyhoo, I also got a cheap two-tier desk shelf from Amazon to store the MBA when I’m not using it. It also has space for my journals and sketchbooks, so that’s pretty sweet. The right-angled USB‑C connector you see is also another useful accessory I picked up to prevent cable bend.
I guess this will be do it for now. I’ve been using the new setup for a few days now and the difference in my energy is huge!
Personally, I’ve been doing some of the most significant work of my career over the last couple of months. I’m not allowed to disclose details but I’ve had to really stretch myself and learn so much from everyone around me. Engineers, designers, product managers — everyone here’s at another level. In particular, I’ve become so much better at design discovery, which has never been my strong suit. I’ve also had to unlearn a lot — mainly misconceptions about building products and design’s role therein — which I’m immensely grateful for.
The unbelievable part is that all of this has happened in the midst of a global pandemic with everyone working from home. I’ve realised how tools like Zoom, Miro and Figma have nearly eliminated geographic distances and perceived timezone differences to the point where it feels like we’re almost in the same physical office space shipping world-class pixels and code, sprint after sprint.
One of the things the Falcon.io team has proved to be really strong with is process. I’m in constant awe of how there’s processes, tools and documentation for every single thing an employee could possibly need help with … it’s crazy.
Culture is another thing to boast about. Every Falconeer is super helpful, and goes out of their way to assist other folks. Communication and collaboration are our bulwark. Our Slack channels are constant proof of this — any small achievement by any team is announced and celebrated like we’re all family.
I’m not going to lie — I had a few fears after the acquisition announcement. I was mainly scared about becoming just another faceless “cog in the machine” doing 9‑to‑6 in a 300+ person company. But after a year, I can confidently say that every Falconeer in every department is given enough autonomy and enough transparency to realise how even the small things eventually connect to Falcon.io’s larger vision for its product and customers. It’s this sort of feeling that gets me up every morning!
None of this would be possible without my amazing crew currently spread across Europe, so a hat-tip to you all — Justina, Lasse, Jakub, Rob, Veli and Zainab! I have such a rich and diverse team to interact with on a daily basis, and it feels funny to have never met most of you in person due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. But here’s hoping we can finally meet again in 2021. You folks are awesome.
Upward and onward!
Hasgeek Content Web: Getting Started with Web Typography
I was invited by Hasgeek couple of weeks ago to give a short talk on the fundamentals of web typography, as part of their Content Web Saturday Sessions. Hasgeek is the community behind Meta Refresh, JSFoo, The Fifth Elephant, Rootconf and other annual staples in the design and tech scene in India.
The talk lasted about 30 minutes and was followed by audience Q&A, which I thought went well. The session was moderated by Hamsa Ganesh. We covered topics like:
Why web typography is a big deal
The long winding road to webfont adoption
Selecting typefaces for the web
Webfont licensing and deployment
This was a first for me, and I really enjoyed the experience! Check out the recording above if you enjoy geeking about web typography as well.
I think Apple Music’s bio of Leeland is the most accurate description of their sound:
… folding the pleading choruses of praise and worship into the sorts of celestial pianos and achingly high harmonies made popular by Coldplay and Muse.
This live version of Way Maker gave me goosebumps for a full 8 minutes.
New worship music for a new generation.
Now Playing
Modern Love
A real gem I stumbled across the other night on Prime Video — Modern Love is a collection of real stories from the column of the same name in the New York Times, which is what piqued my interest.
Vinnie and I finished Season 1 over just a few nights, and I can validate that the 8‑something rating it currently has on IMDb is not hype. The episodes depict love in its various forms — romantic, parental, platonic and filial.
I loved all the episodes, although Ep 2 (“When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist”) — I should really watch more stuff starring Dev Patel — and Ep 1 (“When the Doorman Is Your Main Man”) were outstanding. Ep 8 tied everything together nicely in the end and had us both anxiously waiting for Season 2.
Now Playing
Divinity: Original Sin EE
I was hesitant about trying out another old-school RPG after what happened with Pillars Of Eternity. While I reported a great initial experience, I actually abandoned it after 50 hours mainly because the “realtime-with-pause” combat system with a party of 6 became unmanageable. And although my opinion of every other aspect of the game remains dead-on, I just couldn’t get through battles after a point.
Which led to me spending several hours on Reddit and Steam looking for alternatives. Divinity: Original Sin came highly recommended as an RPG inspired by Baldur’s Gate and other classic cRPGs. So I decided to give it a shot.
TL;DR I finished Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition last night after just over 120 hours. I’d give this a solid 4 stars out of 5 and I’m sharing this amazing experience here for anyone else interested in picking up this gem.
My party heading toward The First Garden
First off — combat. D:OS features (what I know now is) tactical turn-based combat. Every character gets a fixed set of Action Points. Roll die. Character with highest initiative begins. Use APs to get said character to move into position or attack. Next character takes a turn: be it from your party or the enemy’s. It’s so simple and it just works! I really cannot understand why every RPG doesn’t work this way.
I cannot pick up a RPG that doesn’t feature a great story and D:OS doesn’t disappoint. While the writing isn’t as good as PoE both in terms of quality and depth, it still is fantastic. Both the main storyline and sidequests feature plots that made me want to engage with the world and interesting characters I wanted to interact with.
The gameplay mechanics are awesome, although inventory management is a little tedious. Also, the way the journal updates itself isn’t always clear as to what the next steps are. There were about 6 to 8 points in the game where I had to seek help from the forums to advance.
Graphics and audio are great, and not very demanding on hardware. A little better than PoE, I think. Phantom Forest and the First Garden were my favourite areas of the entire game. The soundtrack too nicely sets the mood for exploration or combat, depending on what you’re currently engaged in.
Another addictive aspect of D:OS is the loot. I honestly find the prospect of finding an item or weapon better than you currently have equipped too tantalising to resist! It pushed me to explore every inch of the map and open every chest I could find. My favourite weapon of the entire game was easily the Sword Of Holy Flame, which I equipped on my tank early on. Although it is just Level 13, no other mêlée weapon came close even at level 18 or 19. And that special attribute list is pure fire!
What a beast of a two-handed sword this is!
All in all, kudos to Larian Studios — they’ve done an amazing job with this! D:OS really captures the essence of classic RPGs and really makes me reminisce about titles like Septerra Core that made me a fan of the genre in the first place. And from what I’ve read, D:OS2 is even better. It’s already in my Steam Library, and I can hardly wait!
I think I’ll take a break from the fantasy genre though, and take on something different first. I’m currently eyeing either Wasteland 2 or Shadowrun: Hong Kong, most likely the latter. Got ‘em both on a huge discount during Steam’s summer sale and they’re both similar to D:OS in terms of gameplay and combat.
Good times!
21-day lockdown begins today
Quite a bold move by the Prime Minister, and one that is warranted in a nation with a population of 1.3 billion. Although this is going to be difficult with 3 kids to manage fulltime (now that schools will be shut), I look at what has happened in Italy and Spain so far, and I believe that this is the best decision we as a country could take at this time.
