Heh, my in-laws wrote to say they don't want to swap gifts anymore... after I had sent them presents, naturally. At least it'll be my last time getting it wrong. The whole holiday thing is otherwise going well, with tree trimming at the squirrel's and one early present swap (after years, I have the SNES Classic Mini! Super Mario World, here I come).
Last week was corporate blur, with a bunch of quarterly checkins due and various negotiations happening around the new team I'm picking up soon. I think my part-time setup is still working well enough and that things balance out, but it's hard to hold to a particular schedule; Weds was supposed to be 8 hrs but was 5, and Friday was supposed to be 4 hrs but was 7. I actually like what I'm doing and wish I felt I could savor parts of it; the newer team's going to be cool. But working fewer hrs/week doesn't solve the issue of overall pacing, and Big Tech gallops along.
Went out for dinner with an ex-Zillianaire friend (Xillianaire?) and it was good to be social with someone I have that particular bond with. I like the cameraderie that a long-standing coworker relationship produces. And I like sharing brands of crazy with others who're a bit extreme but also kind, and have chosen directions just different enough to be interesting. There'll be another one of those this coming week but with a comrade who's less happy
I'm in a weird but excellent streak of media consumption. I am really really enjoying all of the following:
This is all enough that I have to wonder if it's me, if I'm appreciating things more than usual. I don't feel manic at all, though, just happy, and I've been listening to a lot of new music without being grabbed by most of it (which is normal), so I'm inclined to trust my judgement for now.
The yeast rash is trying to recolonize my back. It has the natural desire to live, I have ketoconazole and spite. Apply spite in a thin layer twice a day to affected areas. So far so good, but it's annoying. I have enough body stuff going on that I'm procrastinating on tooth whitening.
Posting now but written yesterday. Time to dive, only somewhat willingly, into the Monday capitalism...
Last week was corporate blur, with a bunch of quarterly checkins due and various negotiations happening around the new team I'm picking up soon. I think my part-time setup is still working well enough and that things balance out, but it's hard to hold to a particular schedule; Weds was supposed to be 8 hrs but was 5, and Friday was supposed to be 4 hrs but was 7. I actually like what I'm doing and wish I felt I could savor parts of it; the newer team's going to be cool. But working fewer hrs/week doesn't solve the issue of overall pacing, and Big Tech gallops along.
Went out for dinner with an ex-Zillianaire friend (Xillianaire?) and it was good to be social with someone I have that particular bond with. I like the cameraderie that a long-standing coworker relationship produces. And I like sharing brands of crazy with others who're a bit extreme but also kind, and have chosen directions just different enough to be interesting. There'll be another one of those this coming week but with a comrade who's less happy
I'm in a weird but excellent streak of media consumption. I am really really enjoying all of the following:
- Void Stranger (game), a game with terrible graphics and dazzling cleverness. It's a slow burn, but working toward where Baba Is You style meets Outer Wilds conceptually.
- Cocoon (game) -- right after telling a friend that I generally don't like game graphics and don't care much as long as the gameplay is good, I tried Cocoon with
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heisenbug and was blown away by its graphics. It's maybe kind of like paying Myst but in a world like a 3-D version of Shaun Tan's book The Arrival? - I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself (book). I'm not done yet, but if it doesn't jump any sharks then it should be read by anyone who loves language or has raised a kid or has been on the wrong side of any ism. Especially lesbians maybe? I've been reading it slowly to make it last longer, which I hardly ever do.
- Determined by Robert Sapolsky (audiobook), which is mostly hilarious and calming. They found a reader for the audiobook who sounds like Sapolsky, which is a very reasonable thing to do if the author of the book is a famous lecturer whose voice is well-known. And he's reading all the footnotes. So in the middle of solemn discussions about how we don't have free will, I'll suddenly get "I have no idea what that means, and this footnote is utterly gratuitous".
This is all enough that I have to wonder if it's me, if I'm appreciating things more than usual. I don't feel manic at all, though, just happy, and I've been listening to a lot of new music without being grabbed by most of it (which is normal), so I'm inclined to trust my judgement for now.
The yeast rash is trying to recolonize my back. It has the natural desire to live, I have ketoconazole and spite. Apply spite in a thin layer twice a day to affected areas. So far so good, but it's annoying. I have enough body stuff going on that I'm procrastinating on tooth whitening.
Posting now but written yesterday. Time to dive, only somewhat willingly, into the Monday capitalism...
