That feeling when a technology thing breaks in the house, and at first you worry that it's your fault, then discover it isn't your fault but you aren't sure why it happened?
Yeah, that feeling is very mixed
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When I play an awful move in chess and mutter 'oh jesus' I know it's time to stop for the night.
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When I work from home I used to just open the window blinds to give me better light, but now that Duke has discovered he can come in and see the outside world so he has to bark and scare it - I have had to acquire a ring light from IKEA of all places.
It's very barebones and I suspect it will work in the short term but it will only further my acceptance of a need for a better ring light for calls.
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I was in a very bad mood for much of yesterday. I knew I had not slept well, but I think I underestimated how much that poor night's sleep had impacted my day yesterday. After a good night's sleep I woke up feeling refreshed and in a far better mood.
Usually, I aim for 6ish hours of sleep. And I know my body struggles if it has less than 5 hours, of which yesterday was a day, but most of the struggling yesterday was mental where as most other days it is more physical tiredness. I can only attribute this difference to the inevitable march of time.
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"40 questions to ask yourself every year"
The questions seen fun and worth doing. I'm going to do this as a retrospective on 2024, and make it something I do as part of the end of each year.
- What did you do this year that you'd never done before?
- Did you keep your new year's resolutions?
- Did anyone close to you give birth?
- Did anyone close to you die?
- What cities/states/countries did you visit?
- What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year?
- What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
- What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- What was your biggest failure?
- What other hardships did you face?
- Did you suffer illness or injury?
- What was the best thing you bought?
- Whose behavior merited celebration?
- Whose behavior made you appalled?
- Where did most of your money go?
- What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- What song will always remind you of this year?
- Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
- What do you wish you'd done more of?
- What do you wish you'd done less of?
- How are you spending the holidays?
- Did you fall in love this year?
- Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
- What was your favorite show?
- What was the best book you read?
- What was your greatest musical discovery of the year?
- What was your favorite film?
- What was your favorite meal?
- What did you want and get?
- What did you want and not get?
- What did you do on your birthday?
- What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
- How would you describe your personal fashion this year?
- What kept you sane?
- Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?
- What political issue stirred you the most?
- Who did you miss?
- Who was the best new person you met?
- What valuable life lesson did you learn this year?
- What is a quote that sums up your year?
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Last night I had a dream that was partial anxiety dream. I was at some sort of event and I needed three types of papers to get through. I feel like they were medical, like my doctor needed to write a note, and then two other things. I had them and then of course as I get to the front of the line I suddenly didn't have them.
It was a weird dream because I wasn't stressed. I was annoyed. I knew, for a fact, that I could just print off my papers again. It just would mean going through the queue line again.
Weird.
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Very thankful for Stardew Valley as my selfcare game this week. Been playing for a little bit each day to just help me relax.
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The idea that I could care about breakdancer Raygun retiring this, of all weeks, is honestly offensive. I can't believe the amount of headlines I've seen about it.
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So disappointing this wasn't a sweeping rejection of Trumpism. Even if she manages the win, the fact it continues to be this close is utterly sickening.
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Eye doctor has suggested I stop wearing my glasses while on the computer. And, breaking that habit after two decades is HARD.
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Did an hour of writing this morning. It felt like exercising for the first time in months. Slow at first, but gained speed and momentum as I went.
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So glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed last night. I had a dream that I ran a game store/arcade and it was absurdly successful.
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What an excellent weekend. I only wish I had more time for people. Packing up and heading home and taking some time off of work.
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The level to which my hotel room chair is uncomfortable to sit in as I work is truly impressive.
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I had a lovely birthday dinner with friends after what can only be described as a memorable birthday day. Now, I'm heading to the airport for a work trip. Should be a fun one.
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Modern mysteries
I was going through my 'Downloads' folder on my laptop. I have zero idea why I had downloaded a map of population densities and shellfish growing areas...
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A Birthday Taskmaster
So yesterday my family departed for the next leg of their journey, then after a nap Katie and I went to a friend's birthday party. They put together a Taskmaster event and had attendees compete in various tasks. I placed third overall, but Katie did manage to win a task which sent us home with a massive vase filled with M&Ms and Skittles.
We had a great time and definitely something I'll be considering for future birthdays of my own. So, happy birthday Sarah, thanks for the amazing evening.
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Good morning from SeaTac airport
I got up even earlier than I had planned because I was within an hour of my alarm and at that point my body won't let me go back to sleep. So here I am, mildly caffeinated, and sitting at a power outlet for a few hours before my flight.
On Psychology & a Rewrite
Last night, as I was tweaking Glowbug code, I began thinking I might just need to start new on the backend. The current system is five years old at this point and while it is still quite serviceable, there are also quality of life things I need to work on which I keep putting off because I just don't want to wade into the code.
The irony, of course, being that a complete rewrite would be magnitudes more work.
Brains are funny that way.
Flight Entertainment
As mentioned, I am at the airport with a day of travel ahead of me. I've loaded up on entertainment so expect some reviews once I land:
Movies & TV
- MAX's Chernobyl - I didn't watch it when it came out, but I've finally relented and have it downloaded
- Dropout's recent episodes - I watch most Dropout shows and I'm behind from this past week
Podcast
- Worlds Beyond Number - I listen to this amazing podcast on and off, mostly off. But I've got ten episodes downloaded in case I decide to binge it while I fly.
Books
Too many. I'll list some, but I checked last night and I carry nearly 3 gigs of ebooks on my reader.
- The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh [currently reading and enjoying]
- How to Clone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro
- Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli
- The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
- This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
- Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
- A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
- The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk
- Bear: Myth, Animal, Icon by Wolf Storl
Really, the list goes on. I am an eclectic reader and I have an addiction to acquiring ebooks for my virtual library.
And now I must go in search of more caffeine.
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This morning I had the revelation that it is the 23rd and not the 24th. Last night, as I was going to bed, I saw it was the 23rd so logically when I wake up it would be the 24th - except, it was after midnight when I went to bed. Oops.
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Old friends and togetherness
When Katie and I moved to Seattle, on our drive, we had planned to meet up with a highschool who was now living in Washington. It was the last day of our drive and I was over it, and as much as I wanted to reconnect with Jessica, I was also VERY eager to get to our place and be done with the roadtrip. So, we skipped meeting up and booked it for Seattle.
Jessica was a high school classmate of mine. She is a brilliant woman. She works with "Black Owned Social Services" a Co-op dedicated to growing businesses for POC in the renewable and solar industry. From BOSS's about page:
BOSS is the largest community of African American professionals working in the solar photovoltaic (PV) space. We are entrepreneurs, financiers, veterans, attorneys, engineers, contractors, developers and other peer partners. We possess deep knowledge, experience and strategic access to the multi-trillion dollar, emerging solar and clean energy technology marketplace that is fast reshaping sustainability, infrastructure resilience and livelihoods in our country and across the globe. We have established roots and relationships in all communities, and particularly those disproportionately impacted by climate change —in the United States and abroad. Our collective efforts are making communities more resilient, sustainable and economically powerful.
The mission of BOSS is to combine and leverage our collective power to lead actionable solutions for sustained access to equitable opportunities in clean energy production, distribution and storage for Black-owned businesses. BOSS was launched in the Fall of 2020 after an inaugural Solar Equity Summit (SES) on September 29, 2020. A common theme throughout the SES was the importance of policy in shaping markets to enable accessibility for Black-owned businesses to thrive in the clean energy sector. Energy equity is a key policy enabler to manifesting the mission of BOSS and plays a critical role in our endeavor to highlight unfair practices and provide recommendations for common actions to address them.
Our trip to Washington was nearly twelve years ago (!) and while we have chatted countless times online during that span, we haven't managed to actually see each other. She lives in Vancouver, Washington, with her husband which is basically Portland's other side across the river which is the state border, but that is only a few hours away - a very doable drive.
Well, a few weeks ago, Jessica messages me asking about hotel recommendations around Burien, another Seattle suburb. Turns out she was going to be in the area for a work event. Katie and I immediately invited her to stay with us.
So, Friday, she arrived and we spent a lovely evening together. Catching up, reminiscing, and just enjoying the connection of old friends. I smoked ribs for us, and Katie made a delicious cake which uses angel food cake, pineapple, strawberries, pudding, and cool whip.
After she left Saturday morning, we had already been planning to make our way down and see the event she was working. But also we realized we hadn't taken any photos together. So, when we did meet up with her at the event, we made sure to commemorate the gathering with a "ussie."
While there, we also got to run into her brother, another old school friend, James. James is a fellow D&D fan, and we stood there talking about stuff for probably close to thirty minutes. He also lives in the state. And Jessica grabbed this ussie.
Great times. It truly was like no time had passed and we just enjoyed the togetherness. We're not going to wait fourteen more years to see each other again. And it's probably our turn to travel south.
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When I see videos touting "I tried [insert famous person]'s routine FOR ONE DAY" I can't help but roll my eyes.
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Thoughts from a day of travel
So, I am traveling for work. My first time overseas for work in probably 5 years, and it feels great. I missed getting to travel overseas.
I will admit the trip itself was exhausting. I took an overnight from Seattle to Heathrow, and then had a four-hour layover before taking the 2 hour hop to Spain. But now that I'm here and have a night of sleep, I feel great.
I think traveling truly is one of the most beneficial things people can do. I recognize finances are hard, and as I flew I was considering the moral ethics of it in light of the climate crisis, which I recognize are big things to be considered. And I didn't come to a resolution one way or the other.
But I truly believe much of the issue with people's shrinking views of the world, where it's just their bubble and everything outside their bubble isn't important, doesn't matter, or is even the enemy - being able to expand their bubble, or pop it altogether through travel is a wonderful thing.
If I had the money, part of my gifts for nieces and nephews would be money for college, and money for an overseas trip. I've added that to my list for when I eventually win the powerball. 🙄
One thing which made the travel to Barcelona much better was that I had a story idea before getting on the plane, and I was able to spend a great deal of my time in the area thinking about it and developing it. We'll see what becomes of it, but I think I've got a really fun and interesting concept.
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