September 2025

Hi! This was quite a busy month. Good-busy, though, and a lot of fun.

Incredibly, this month marked our one-year anniversary of being back in RVA. But, funny enough, I spent a lot of it out of town!

About half of this month was a working vacation. First, M and I drove down to North Carolina to visit some family — but also to go to the Nine Inch Nails show in Raleigh. (More on that in the music section below; that’s not the only show I got to go to this month!) After that, I flew off to Boston to spend a day in the city and eat some amazing food with Josh Goldberg — thanks again for an amazing time and letting me crash at your place! I spent quite a bit of the day in MFA Boston, seeing a lot of works I recognized from textbooks. I took the train from there to Rhode Island, where I stayed with family for the week; spending quite a bit outside, hacking away on my laptop. I also got the chance to meet up with friend/mentor Erin White while I was there and have a great dinner with them. There was also a chance for me to catch up with some extended family, where I also played the croquet game of the century. Then finally, I flew back to NC, then drove back to RVA.

Whew!

programming

I spent a bit of time this month working on an actual app for every.restaurant. It’s not yet ready to actually launch, but hopefully soon!

I also hacked together a quick color theme, inspired by the black-red-white stylings of this current Nine Inch Nails era.

I've moved from using Iceberg (cocopon.github.io/iceberg.vim/) everywhere to a color theme I've put together that's inspired by both Iceberg and recently getting my retinas seared at a Nine Inch Nails show

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— Joe Woods (@joewoods.dev) September 9, 2025 at 10:19 AM

music

I went to two shows this month. First: the aforementioned Nine Inch Nails show in Raleigh.

Simply incredible.

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— Joe Woods (@joewoods.dev) September 5, 2025 at 11:04 PM

Nine Inch Nails are far and above my favorite band, and it was amazing to see them live for the first time. This tour had a really great blend of the different types of music from NIN, a hybrid of crunchy guitar rock and dark electronic music. This performance made space for both of them in an amazing way.

I also got the chance to see GOON — another band I really love — when they played in RVA.

Here’s this month’s new music playlist:

films

This month, I watched 5 films:

  • World War Z
  • Gravity
  • The Thursday Murder Club
  • Nine Inch Nails: Woodstock 94
  • The Social Network (rewatch)

Have I mentioned that I love Letterboxd? You can follow me there.

books

This month, I finished 1 book:

  • Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks. I wrote in the list:

Put this one down the first time around, and I don’t quite know why; not as developed as his other works, but still an engaging sci-fi romp.

There are now only three Iain Banks books I haven’t finished yet! (Two, if you don’t count a limited-edition chapbook.)

I’m currently part of the way through Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer — Stormlight Archive .

failbetter

This month, failbetter published:

stats

This month:

  • I typed 642,000 keys and clicked 111,711 times.
  • I listened to 1,551 songs.