Bits and Bobs
This is the first weekend I've had in some time where I am not only free, but energetic and motivated. So instead of going out and being active, I've decided to post on LiveJournal. *grin*.
Actually, that's not at all true; I've had a wonderfully active day running errands and getting haircuts and organizing things and getting caught up on personal stuff, of which LJ is a part. The trouble is that while there've been a number of fun and cool things going on in my life, none of them seem to fit in any one category, so they all end up as bits and bobs (great English phrase I picked up from my cousins!) floating around in my noggin and begging to be let out to play on paper.
It's interesting, though... I know I've started posting less often on LJ -- which I actually regret, though it doesn't seem to show -- and I wonder how it's affecting my mental state. Am I more disjointed, more scattered, because I'm not actively organizing my thoughts on paper on a regular basis? I don't think so, but it's possible, given all the little things that I should have mentioned but haven't...
Actually, what I've noticed is that without posting on a regular basis somewhere -- anywhere, actually, even on paper -- I'm less creative. Writing begets more writing, I've found, and without writing in a journal, my normal writing suffers immensely. LJ's a great way to prime the pump, I guess, which would explain why I've written all of half a chapter plus a short story since I stopped posting as often. Again, more reasons to pick this back up.
But in any case... the major bit-and-bob to drop is that I'm now in a relationship with a wonderful woman! 4th-of-July weddings have treated me very well in the past few years -- so much so that when I do get married, it'll likely be then! -- and this year's 4th of July was no exception. Lizbee and I have known each other since Loomis, and we'd always been friends, but we connected in a different sort of way during said wedding. Truth be told, I was concerned that the distance would be a problem; even with my friends, I work best with physical presence. I can spread cheer and comfort and excitement and optimism from across a room, but not from across a continent. With Lizbee, though... she's so wonderfully perceptive and we're so tuned in to each other that it doesn't seem to be an issue at all. I find myself asking where this woman's been all my life.
Yeah, it's that good.
On a related note, God bless FaceTime. I can call Dad, Mom, or Shooms (and now Lizbee!) from across a planet -- for free! -- and actually chat with them face to face. It's a freakin' technological wonder, and my only disappointment is that it took us this long to get it.
Other news... it's been a year since I started working at Apple and I'm still loving every second of it. A few months ago, one of my coworkers -- an alarmingly brilliant engineer -- left my team for another, and in the resultant project ownership shuffle, I ended up with a major internal tool. Major. So major that one of my coworkers, another freakin' brilliant dude, when he heard the news, bought me root beer and said, "Welcome to the big leagues."
I've been getting about two bug reports a day about how such-and-such is broken, or how this-and-that doesn't quite work correctly, and it's...
Well, to say that it's fun is an understatement, and also wildly inaccurate. It's like a roller coaster ride on one of those old-school rickety roller coasters. It's exhilarating and terrifying and a little worrisome because in the back of your head you keep thinking that the next bend is just a hair too ramshackle for your tastes and whooooo!
It's possible I've bitten off more than I can chew here, though; I don't know maybe a quarter of the technology involved so I'm really busy coming up to speed at the same time that I'm trying to close something like 150+ open bug/enhancement reports and figure out how exactly to speed this thing up etc. etc. No time like the present to rise to the challenge, though, and I think I've been holding down the fort pretty well since I've come back from vacation.
And speaking of vacation: I just came back from a Safari in Kenya. Yes! We saw Lions -- no tigers or bears, though my brother is now on a mission to introduce black bears to the Masai Mara... -- Rhinos, Elephants, Buffalo, Leopards, Giraffes, Zebra, Antelope, Pelicans, Flamingos, Baboons, Warthogs, Meercats, Jackals... pretty much the whole Lion King circle of life bit. My brother took something like 20 GB worth of pictures and I'm still, a week and a half later, sorting through them all. (On a side note, I like to tell people that I shot a lot of animals in Kenya -- with my camera. /rimshot). It was freakin' fantastic and I'm going back again sometime, if only to camp out under the stars on the Masai Mara. It would be one hell of an experience.
But on the topic of civilization: Nairobi was bizarre. I don't feel like I got to see the city at all, even though Google Maps says I drive through it at least. Never at any point did I feel I was in a city at all, more like a suburb or a village like one of the ones you find in Cairo -- tiny, two lane roads with no shoulders, trash in the gutters, broken pavement and shattered sidewalks... I found myself saying, "ok, the city's just around the next turn... just around the next turn, I'm going to see high rises, wide streets, large squares," but it never happened. None of the things I associate with big cities -- even big cities in Egypt -- ever materialized. It was very strange. Clearly, I need to go back.
Hrm. There's more to say -- there's always more to say -- but I need to run a few more errands before the sun goes down. I'll be back again soon, hopefully.
Actually, that's not at all true; I've had a wonderfully active day running errands and getting haircuts and organizing things and getting caught up on personal stuff, of which LJ is a part. The trouble is that while there've been a number of fun and cool things going on in my life, none of them seem to fit in any one category, so they all end up as bits and bobs (great English phrase I picked up from my cousins!) floating around in my noggin and begging to be let out to play on paper.
It's interesting, though... I know I've started posting less often on LJ -- which I actually regret, though it doesn't seem to show -- and I wonder how it's affecting my mental state. Am I more disjointed, more scattered, because I'm not actively organizing my thoughts on paper on a regular basis? I don't think so, but it's possible, given all the little things that I should have mentioned but haven't...
Actually, what I've noticed is that without posting on a regular basis somewhere -- anywhere, actually, even on paper -- I'm less creative. Writing begets more writing, I've found, and without writing in a journal, my normal writing suffers immensely. LJ's a great way to prime the pump, I guess, which would explain why I've written all of half a chapter plus a short story since I stopped posting as often. Again, more reasons to pick this back up.
But in any case... the major bit-and-bob to drop is that I'm now in a relationship with a wonderful woman! 4th-of-July weddings have treated me very well in the past few years -- so much so that when I do get married, it'll likely be then! -- and this year's 4th of July was no exception. Lizbee and I have known each other since Loomis, and we'd always been friends, but we connected in a different sort of way during said wedding. Truth be told, I was concerned that the distance would be a problem; even with my friends, I work best with physical presence. I can spread cheer and comfort and excitement and optimism from across a room, but not from across a continent. With Lizbee, though... she's so wonderfully perceptive and we're so tuned in to each other that it doesn't seem to be an issue at all. I find myself asking where this woman's been all my life.
Yeah, it's that good.
On a related note, God bless FaceTime. I can call Dad, Mom, or Shooms (and now Lizbee!) from across a planet -- for free! -- and actually chat with them face to face. It's a freakin' technological wonder, and my only disappointment is that it took us this long to get it.
Other news... it's been a year since I started working at Apple and I'm still loving every second of it. A few months ago, one of my coworkers -- an alarmingly brilliant engineer -- left my team for another, and in the resultant project ownership shuffle, I ended up with a major internal tool. Major. So major that one of my coworkers, another freakin' brilliant dude, when he heard the news, bought me root beer and said, "Welcome to the big leagues."
I've been getting about two bug reports a day about how such-and-such is broken, or how this-and-that doesn't quite work correctly, and it's...
Well, to say that it's fun is an understatement, and also wildly inaccurate. It's like a roller coaster ride on one of those old-school rickety roller coasters. It's exhilarating and terrifying and a little worrisome because in the back of your head you keep thinking that the next bend is just a hair too ramshackle for your tastes and whooooo!
It's possible I've bitten off more than I can chew here, though; I don't know maybe a quarter of the technology involved so I'm really busy coming up to speed at the same time that I'm trying to close something like 150+ open bug/enhancement reports and figure out how exactly to speed this thing up etc. etc. No time like the present to rise to the challenge, though, and I think I've been holding down the fort pretty well since I've come back from vacation.
And speaking of vacation: I just came back from a Safari in Kenya. Yes! We saw Lions -- no tigers or bears, though my brother is now on a mission to introduce black bears to the Masai Mara... -- Rhinos, Elephants, Buffalo, Leopards, Giraffes, Zebra, Antelope, Pelicans, Flamingos, Baboons, Warthogs, Meercats, Jackals... pretty much the whole Lion King circle of life bit. My brother took something like 20 GB worth of pictures and I'm still, a week and a half later, sorting through them all. (On a side note, I like to tell people that I shot a lot of animals in Kenya -- with my camera. /rimshot). It was freakin' fantastic and I'm going back again sometime, if only to camp out under the stars on the Masai Mara. It would be one hell of an experience.
But on the topic of civilization: Nairobi was bizarre. I don't feel like I got to see the city at all, even though Google Maps says I drive through it at least. Never at any point did I feel I was in a city at all, more like a suburb or a village like one of the ones you find in Cairo -- tiny, two lane roads with no shoulders, trash in the gutters, broken pavement and shattered sidewalks... I found myself saying, "ok, the city's just around the next turn... just around the next turn, I'm going to see high rises, wide streets, large squares," but it never happened. None of the things I associate with big cities -- even big cities in Egypt -- ever materialized. It was very strange. Clearly, I need to go back.
Hrm. There's more to say -- there's always more to say -- but I need to run a few more errands before the sun goes down. I'll be back again soon, hopefully.