Current Projects

A week ago I posted my last to-don’t list; here’s what I’m working on instead:

• A SQL tutorial: no idea when I’m going to teach it or to whom, but a couple of hundred people are viewing it every day.

• A tutorial on systems programming for data scientist. I have even less idea who this is for, but I’m learning some useful things as I work on it.

• A sequel to the Software Design by Example books in JavaScript and Python in a pure functional language called Roc. I’ve nibbled at functional programming in the past; if I’m ever going to make a meal of it, I’d better get started.

• I probably won’t do more work on Research Software Design by Example unless I find a co-author.

• A YA novel about a girl living in Antarctica. At one point it was nearly 70,000 words long (against a target of 90,000), but I’ve torn off the back half and am slowly rebuilding it. It helps to have a regular reader…

• A middle-school story about all the other Santas. It’s currently 28,000 words long (against a target of 32,000), but I had no idea how to end it, so I’ve set it aside for now.

• Another middle-school story about kangaroos and robots. I’m posting a couple or three chapters a week to Scribophile, and hope to rewrite it over the summer based on that feedback.

• Running the occasional workshop on how to teach to raise money for Rainbow Railroad. We still don’t know when the person we’re sponsoring will be able to come to Canada, but we look forward to meeting her.

• Physiotherapy for my left wrist, which I’ve damaged by typing too much on crappy laptop keyboards. I expect to get most function back, but it’s the end of my music-playing days.