Online Real-Time

Two Christmases ago was a busy season for funerals. I wrote to you about it.

Among the losses was a new friend and coworker, whom we'd dubbed "Online Real-Time" for his general lack of a brain-to-mouth filter. That's a character defect for most people, but Justin was such a genuinely good man that it was nearly always on the endearing-to-hilarious spectrum.

So. Fifteen minutes ago I was updating one of my code repos at work. I pulled down my counterpart's latest changes, tried to do a build, and my development environment complained that it couldn't find a new form interface it needed:

We hide things in the software you run. We bury our frustrations in comments. We name things after inside jokes. I once got a bug fix ticket that simply read "please make your error logging less witty."

Sometimes we bury a tribute where you will never see it.

Nerds, you can be pretty great sometimes.

Blackest Night, My Ass

So your kids are about to be pretty goddamn disappointed that I'm not their dad.

​Superman Night Light

Solder lines are lumpy, the edges are uneven, and I've got about two dozen gripes with it overall, but hey, it's only the third stained glass piece I've ever made.

And? I made it.

And? This will light up my son's room.

Little Pea Pod sister's got her order in for a Wonder Woman.

Happy Birthday, Brett.

A very happy birthday to Brett Terpstra.

Who is Brett Terpstra?

I'm just delighted you asked.

This is a list of stuff Brett Terpstra has made.. Most of it he has given away for free. Don't know what that stuff is? That's okay. It's nerdy stuff, but it's important nerdy stuff. Stuff that has changed my workflow and vastly improved my life. Stuff that is so important for my writing that I actually lug my MacBook to work so I can write on it, then transfer the files to my Windows work laptop so I can give them to my bosses so they can be all oh, mct, you're so talented and handsome, and just look at your document formatting, can we do the sex now?

Brett's stuff is mostly related to plaintext writing and Markdown, which I've written about here before. Just as weaning myself off of fast food has decreased my tolerance of it, so has abandoning word processors for plaintext nerdery made me apoplectic with rage after five minutes in Word. Brett is basically the Whole Foods of dorks.

More accurately, he's a mad scientist. A really, really nerdy mad scientist who makes awesome things that help people. He's a toolmaker, and so he has my love. Personally, I can't imagine writing without Marked, I use his OS X services to clean up my work, and since I discovered his tools for my favorite text editor, things have gotten even better.

I use his tools every day. That's what she said. Where's the beef?

Brett, happy birthday. Congratulations on your work and your new podcast. You make the internet and my life better.

I mean this in the nicest way imaginable, Brett: you are my Tool of the Week.