Sorry for the radio silence the past little bit. Even though I recognized I was going into a fallow period, I was still trying to get something out at least once a month, and I totally missed November. It’s not just the writing – I’m behind on my RSS feeds and other regular media diet, too!
I Got Married
This is probably the most notable thing that happened – Simone and I got married! We tied the knot on November 10th, with a very small affair. The only people present in person was the justice of the peace and my parents. (And the dogs, of course.) We were already committed to each other, considering we own a house and two dogs together, so this was more of a formality (we’ve both been married before, so some of the romanticism attached to marriage is behind us: let the romance come from the relationship, not from the title). It’s been good, though, and here’s to many more good years to come.
Work Trips
I was in Bristol (UK) for work in July, and then back in Bristol again in October. Both good trips! One of these days I’ll plan to take some time off while over there, so I can explore a bit more and maybe see some folks over there, but for now I’m just glad I get the opportunity to travel for work (frequently enough that I don’t feel like I have to maximize my trip and do all the things, but rare enough that it still feels like something to look forward to).
An aside about work
Honestly, if you asked me what I’ve been up to lately, what I’d probably say is, “Oh, you know, work.” I do try to maintain some work-life balance, but it definitely consumes a lot of the day, and maybe I’m just staving off some low grade depression or something, but frequently by the end of the day I just haven’t had the energy to work on any projects, or even read, watch or play anything. I’ve kept up with a few shows (high calorie, low nutrition stuff like One Piece and a few other anime), and have had a few incremental-style games going (lol, Tingus Goose), but nothing I’ve needed to particularly commit to. Basically work’s been eating my brain and not leaving enough spoons for fun personal stuff.
I suppose I could talk about work here more, considering how much of our days are taken up by it. Some of it might even be interesting to some of the nerdier folks (like, “hey, here’s how I set up the site infrastructure for a major project so that it can scale to meet demand for a relatively low cost”. Or, “here’s why I think asciidoc is a way better format than markdown for any sort of more complex writing, but it still struggles to gain adoption outside of technical writing communities”). But I don’t know, I still find myself reluctant to do so. Feels a little too much like crossing the streams and like it’d be too much like promoting my personal “brand”, which is still anathema to me.
Other Life Stuff
There’ve definitely been some wins and some setbacks in the past little bit. Had a lovely time at Canadian Thanksgiving with the extended family, and American Thanksgiving with my parents, Simone, and the dogs. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! All good things.
But we also lost several much-missed cousins this year, and more cancer diagnoses and health issues seem to be cropping up among friends and family. And just in general, it’s felt like a lot of friends and family have been struggling lately, and I don’t feel like I’m in a position to really help much, which leaves me just worried about them (and maybe a little guilty that I haven’t found better ways to help, but that’s more my own hangup).
And then there’s the rapid deterioration of both civil liberties and the economy in my country leaving this general cloud of frustration, concern, and stress lingering as constant background radiation. There’s always some background noise about the state of the world, but this year it’s more like you can actively hear the wheel grinding itself off the axle.
Still, all told, I think there’s been more good than bad, and some of the good is really good.