Late #FridayCheckin

🚲Bike party and Loomi Street Meats TM on Friday
⛺Family and friends campout on Saturday
🥳Extended family get together Sunday

Gonna need a weekend to recover after this weekend

#fridaycheckin on our way back from the cabinland of Canada. A thing I may not have mentioned is that we've mostly "had covid in a cabin" — there are worse places to recover from a mild case of covid than a nice cabin with a scenic overlook.

But it's not how we would have _chosen_ to do things.

#fridaycheckin
Last week was rough; this week has been looking up.

Getting into a work groove, learning more music theory stuff, piecing together my hardware modular synth, getting hyped for Knobcon, getting into the swing of a gym routine, and enjoying this super mild weather.

Life: not bad this week.

#FridayCheckIn

We’re in the car on the way to the airport. Next stop: the Netherlands! I feel like I’ve left work in a good spot and I’ve made it very clear I will not be checking slack or email.

#FridayCheckin
The last few days at work have been as illustrated, so I’m doubly glad to be preparing for my trip, for which I am leaving Tuesday. I’m back on 24 June.

I’m hopeful that better weather and cleaner air is on the way.

#fridaycheckin Actually Saturday for me, but Friday for you so I’m counting it.

It’s been a very productive week at work. The trip to Japan has been mostly good. The food difficulties make me not want to come back any time in the near future. Besides that, I do love this country. Their infrastructure is amazing. There is so much to love.

We are able to take the weekend off, so I’m ditching the people I’m here with and going shopping in a few hours. Tomorrow I have lunch with my son’s friend.

#fridaycheckin

I feel like i'm nosediving compared to a week ago. I blame the weather.

Most of my "wins" this week were in video games, and a bit of reading on modular synth stuff. I did get the a2b2c meeting scheduled, at least (next weekend, come on out).

#fridaycheckin (but not, uh, on friday)

I miss f'ing about with new languages and technologies. I sort of woke up on monday with a strong urge to take a long break from writing type/javascript.

#fridaycheckin

I don't know if the nice weather has accentuated my burnout, or if my burnout makes me excited for nice weather, but in any case, I have found it incredibly difficult to concentrate on work screens this week because it's been too flippin nice.

Also had to deal with a long, tedious background legal thing that is finally wrapping up after 4 years.

At least I managed to sit down and noodle around with modular synth stuff, and have made a decent dent in "Patch & Tweak".

Hello, yes, this is also part of my #fridaycheckin 🤣

Until this afternoon I was feeling like I was finally catching back up on work, even if I was letting my hobby and RPG projects lag a little in exchange, lel. But in general work has been good.

I am also enjoying making steady progress on workshop and house projects in the nicer weather. Might start building my assembly/tool storage table soon!

#FridayCheckin my allergies were activated at high alert earlier this week and seem to be tapering off. Looking forward to more sun and warmer weather, coming soon.

#fridaycheckin

Lost one of my best friends this week. Cancer is a bastard.

Moved back to my home team at work, projects tbd.

Going to a concert tonight with friends at the Michigan theater.

Got a new modsynth book.

Sent out communication for #a2b2c .

Enjoyed Project Zomboid and Crab Champions.

#FridayCheckin

Listening to Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater this morning. It is inexpressibly sad, absolutely gorgeous, and perfectly matches my mood on this grey, rainy day.

#fridayCheckin (observed)

Sunny days are more productive days. Also @logista left her coffee mug home so I drank that, which may be salient.

After a weekend at Maumee Bay Lodge in Ohio, I (1) finally have the new inventory books logged and put away, but (2) have the sniffles today.

Maybe it's allergies. The dust and pollen on the car windshield is pretty dramatic every morning.

Guess we'll know in a day or two.

#FridayCheckin Had a great Mon/Tue: great progress on a new work project; attended a Planning Commission IRL to support an affordable housing development in my neighborhood (had 100% positive public comment & commission support). After, I went out for a drink and seem to have lost my wallet between the bar & home. It has not shown up. I had a few hundred dollars of cash (from recent music gear sales) so guessing whoever found it kept the cash and ditched it.

#FridayCheckin

It's been a mentally exhausting week for some reason, but it's starting (?) to look up.

Work projects wrapping up and looking forward to a complete shift in Q2 (Java and Scala, I'm mildly terrified).

First meeting of the #AnnArborBleepBloopCollective Saturday (are you coming?)

Dinner out with the wife tonight (we want to try someplace new, any suggestions?)

Project Zomboid server set up and running on my Linode box for friends, which has been a blast.

TGIF, friends.

#FridayCheckin
This week was colored by the news of my friend’s suicide Monday. I’m still processing that.

Work has been a bit frantic with looming deadlines - a trade show next week that we had get ready for, and a required update to the version of the Ruby language we use to power our sites. The fact that automated tests failed unpredictably was, um, not helpful. But we got things working last evening so the pressure is off.

#fridaycheckin

- currently 0 for 2 on project solutions i've pitched to my work team, as both have become quagmires we've had to abandon after weeks of effort
- recovering from an annoying non-covid chest cold
- cats healthier, which is a relief, more tests monday
- friend in ICU transferred to physical therapy and then home, but.... hospice is expected at this point unfortunately
- continuing creative ennui and existential despair

#fridaycheckin

Dentist today, so I took a PTO day to make sure I could nap afterwards. The new dental work is not uncomfortable, just different.

The high point of the week was helping chase down a problem that was some mix of software, firmware, hardware, and cabling. "Is it plugged in? At both ends? Into the correct socket?"

Ordered paczki for next week.

#FridayCheckIn, a day late...

Between a senior cat vet emergency visit (he's doing okay now, but it was a wake-up call that his time is winding down soon) ...

...and visiting a childhood friend in the ICU because he texted me wanting DJs donuts...

...only for me to deliver them in the middle an emotional conversation about transferring him to hospice care...

...it made both extremely tough to care about work, which exacerbates my stress.

Video games? Video games.

May next week be better.