Nick Campbell

I like The Promise Ring but I'll be glad when the marketing for Will Arnet's movie is finally all torn down so "Is This Thing On?" will stop spinning in my head when I go to the Y or take a bus.

John Cassavetes: Five Films is the most chosen volume among Criterion Closet visits (26 times or 7.5% of all visits). Jodie Foster picked it up while announcing that she's an actor and, thus, seemed legally obligated to put it in her bag. The numbers back her up.

Lav Diaz had a real Supermarket Sweep approach to the Criterion Closet and I respect it: very little chit-chat, dump volumes in the cart/tote, snag the high-ticket items. He ended up taking home two copies of Persona (1966)!

sononick.com/criterion-cl...

Well, also missing error routes and explicit database transaction handling. And a lack of rigorous testing. And simple state management. And trusting a robot to do an engineer's job. It's easier to just say I was the problem.

To finish a trilogy of posts for #glaw 2025, I wrote up a case study around the app I put together for the Walk: how I whipped it up, got people to believe in it, then watched helplessly as it crashed IMMEDIATELY. I figured out what was wrong: me. I was the problem. www.sononick.com/thoughts/pos...

Top 10 Criterion volumes selected by people visiting the Criterion Closet. In order: John Cassevetes: Five Films (chosen 23 times); The Complete Films of Agnés Varda (chosen 19 times); The Complete Jacques Tati (chosen 16 times); All That Jazz (chosen 14 times); Otto e mezzo (chosen 14 times); Do the Right Thing (chosen 14 times); La strada (chosen 14 times); Wanda (chosen 13 times); The Red Shoes (chosen 12 times); Naked (chosen 12 times).

With Guillermo del Toro's selecting it again in his 2nd trip* to the Criterion Closet, The Red Shoes has been picked 12 times. That means Barry Lyndon (1975), Dekalog (1989), and Yi Yi (2000) are pushed out of the Top 10 for most picked (each at 11).

* mobile closet this time but in the main feed

Nia DaCosta chose Summer Hours (2008) while in the Criterion Closet, the first time that film has been chosen. It also brings to my attention that, somehow, Jérémie Rénier is not what Jeremy Renner calls himself whenever he eats a baguette. sononick.com/criterion-cl...

The Great Los Angeles Walk is tomorrow! Wilshire is a great route and I made both a first timer's guide (www.sononick.com/thoughts/pos...) and a journey tracker (sononick.com/great-la-wal...) for it!

Extra? Yeah. It's how I used my deep focus this week.

See you at #glaw (do we still hashtag?)!

I am fascinated by Criterion Closet episodes and why people choose the things they choose (passion? clout? glory?) but the search on the Criterion site left something to be desired (like searching by movie). So I made my own. Still a bit clunky but coming along. www.sononick.com/criterion-cl...

"Are we sure Mamdani's even legally allowed to be here?" says duck-shaped space parasite who wields the destructive force of every villain you've ever faced.

Maybe because clowns seem to be running things or because cruelty and nothingness seem to be the point, but playing #FF6 in 2025 is really hitting something. Revolution, poisoned water, empires picking on self-isolating minorities (who have latent, unexpressed power). Someone find me an airship.

On a happy hour call with former distributed coworkers, I showed them I was walking around LA. They were shocked that anyone walked here. Then I blew their minds by hopping on a bus that took me right where I wanted to go. I would blame stereotypes but this is also how much of LA thinks of itself.

#javascript #engineering esoteric: I've been reacquainting myself with deep JS after EMing for 7 years and I've dusted off a lot of skills that've been mothballed. But I know my l337ness is returning because I've transitioned from str.split('') to [...str]. 😎

1. Considered using NotebookLM.
2. A YouTube video suggested adding medical info as a source for building a workout.
3. Searched NotebookLM Help for how it deals with private information and protecting users' privacy.
4. The page no longer exists.
5. No longer considering using NotebookLM.

I created a rudimentary blog just to post about the dilemma conscientious software engineers face: tech leaders insist they adopt AI tooling, which has scaled to be both exploitative and planet-killing, OR go find a new vocation. sononick.com/thoughts/pos...

(and there's a car rant tucked in there)

Of all the things I dislike about X, one of the pettiest is that its logo looks like what I should press to close the app.

Night before Easter. Time to plan an egg-and-rabbit-themed challenge for a four year-old that will be evaluated against the unrealistic expectations of a family of cartoon dogs. #thanksBluey