Now_

Currently Working On

I shipped hybrid semantic and lexical retrieval at work. Now I’m on query understanding: a search box can mean fifty different things, and the retrieval is easy once I know what to retrieve.

Also shipping this site. It’s been in my head for a long time.

Training For

Finished Ballarat Full Marathon. Both legs cramped around 23 km; I limped the last 19 km to the line. Got across, but the last three hours were a slow lesson in pacing and fuelling.

Next is Sydney Marathon on 30 August. Rebuilding the base gently, then structured work: long runs at target effort, time on feet, and fuelling practice so the second half isn’t a survival shuffle.

Before that, Run Melbourne Half on 19 July for Running for Premature Babies. Sydney is the main experiment; Melbourne is the charity checkpoint on this block.

Fundraising

I’m fundraising through my Grassrootz page. Donations go toward neonatal equipment for hospitals in Australia.

I’m at AUD 1,216 and aiming for $1,500. A colleague donated and challenged a sub-2:00 half at Run Melbourne. Doable on a good day, but a subplot, not the north star.

If you want to chip in, the link above is the one. Thanks to everyone who already has.

Reading

David Goggins, Never Finished. The follow-up to Can’t Hurt Me, more about staying in the work than starting it. I picked it up mid block when the back half of a marathon build is mostly a head game. Useful to read someone who treats discomfort as the point, not the obstacle.

Cooking

Done with heo quay. The marinade got there eventually: less sugar, more fragrance.

Next is hủ tiếu. Teochew origin, developed in Phnom Penh by the Triều Châu community, brought south to the Mekong Delta and Saigon in the 1950s. Southern cooks adapted it again: sweeter broth, more generous garnish.

The bowl I grew up eating is already several versions removed from the original. Haven’t decided which version to start with.