Here’s another post in which I fiddle around with Claude Code and determine that it is not just spewing out nonsense and bugs, but instead is doing kinda what I would’ve done, at least enough to reduce my total effort. This time, writing tests.

I’ve been trying more things with Clade Code, and I want to keep some notes on how it went. This is the second post in a probably-short series about early adventures with the tool.

I’ve been slowly ramping up my use of Claude for coding issues. I’ve been meaning to write a bit more about how I use it, and had been putting that off until I finished a few things. With some of those done, I thought I’d write up some notes on how it’s gone, finally. Over the next little while, I’ll post some actual work I’ve done. Later, I’ll try to write some more sort of general thoughts: other things I might try, what general tactics have felt useful, places where I think things are particularly problematic, and so on.

Yesterday, I posted about the books I read in 2025, which made me remember that I never posted about the (horror) movies we watched in October 2024. So, I thought I’d get around to that. Of course this will be short and lossy, right? It’s been over a year.

I don’t take the Goodreads “reading challenge” too seriously, but I did hit my target last year, and it felt good. I thought I’d try again this year and I did get it done – only just, though, as I finished my last three books in the last two days of the year. I think I would’ve liked to read a bit more through the year, but sometimes I just wasn’t feeling it. So it goes! I think this is a “structure your time” problem, but also it’s not the most pressing thing on my agenda, you know?

It’s December, and I should’ve posted this in early November, but I didn’t. I did other stuff. Now, though, I’m on a long plane flight, so I guess it’s time to write a bit of bloggery. (Did I really never write up 2024? Well, maybe later.)

I go to Melbourne a couple times a year, for work. It’s where our HQ is, and it’s good to have time in person with my colleagues. It used to be that most of this time was spent at big tables or in front of whiteboards. There’s still quite a lot of that, but the past two or three times I was in Australia, I spent a much larger chunk of time at a desk, programming. Surely not the majority of my time, but enough time that I cared about the ergonomics. So, last time I was there, I dug through the spare hardware cupboard and put together the best workstation I could. It was… not great. Fortunately for me (in one sense, anyway), one of my colleagues was on leave. I boldly appropriated his desk, which was much better hardware than my scavenging had gotten me. The thing that I ended up grumbling about, though, was the mouse and keyboard.

I’d had four days in Rio so far (and one in Miami, better left unmentioned). I had covered lots of ground for things I wanted to see, and also lots of things I didn’t know I should see. I had eaten so, so much cassava. I had lots of things left unseen, lots of food left uneaten, and just about two days left to fill. I think I made good use of my time, but I definitely left things to do… next time?

After a rocky start, I had two great days in Rio, leaving me about four days of vacation. This meant lots more walking around, a little more beach, a bunch more food (70% cassava, 20% pork, 10% other), more forró music, and not enough caipirinhas. If you didn’t read “rjbs in Rio, part ⅰ”, you should start there.

So, I went to Rio de Janeiro! It was great, and it’ll probably take me several entries to sufficiently cover the trip. Here we go!