2015 retrospective
2007 just moved back to edinburgh
2008 http://figg.livejournal.com/314729.html
2009 http://figg.livejournal.com/343616.html
2010 http://figg.livejournal.com/346046.html
2011 http://figg.livejournal.com/346441.html
2012 http://figg.livejournal.com/347985.html
2013 http://figg.livejournal.com/348330.html
2014 http://figg.livejournal.com/348456.html
It's been a long year:
This year i'd like not to worry about paying rent or bills on time. I want to travel to seattle and somewhere else that isn't sf. I think both will happen.
I haven't worried about bills. I went to sf and seattle, and even new york too! And Belgium.
Relocation to oakland/west coast timezone has been offered and it is mighty tempting. Three months into a job is still too early to decide, but I don't think I'll burn out here. I might get bored, frustrated, but that's my archetype.
I stuck it out in london. SF burns me out every time.
I want to produce more things too, not just more posts, talks, and dad joke tweets, but code, books, games, toys.
Work hasn't been all consuming, but no real writing, posts, talks. Lots of dad jokes.
I don't think 2015 will have any less bumps than 2014, but I think i'll be able to deal with them. Looking back over these last seven years, this is probably the best i've been in a long, long while.
This is still true: this is the longest i've been in a job without seeing a doctor for my entire career (16 months)
It's been a long year.
January was the tail end of coming out, and I nipped to belgium to visit fosdem too. I managed to catch up with steve k and avoid richard stallman. It was nice to be able to thank a bunch of people whose software i've been relying on for years. I also went back up to edinburgh. It was good to see old friends but edinburgh is still a bit of a miserable, stunningly beautiful city.
I got to see deer hoof and it was everything I wanted it to be.
In march, I turned 32. I went back to the sycamore, and got everyone to say happy birthday to phoebe back in london (who shares my birthday). The last.fm clique was in town too and I got to show a bunch of londoners around as if I lived here. I went to new york. I went to seattle. I had a lovely, grounded time. Long walks, escapism. Xian Famous Foods. Mystery Soda Machine. I want to go back.
One hilarious thing about my birthday party is I moved it from one side of the bar to another b/c one of the strangers who we let crash our group was an asshole. It feels good that I can ask that of my friends, and they understood why I made a request.
And I lost my shit again. I'd broken myself in december, and it was only inevitable that it happened again. It seems like each and every time I come to america I end up broken. Probably because none of my normal coping strategies work here. Or it's an entirely alien culture. Who knows. Either way, the more time I spend in oakland and the less time I spend in SF seems to make my life better.
Meanwhile in sf, I blocked the 3696 (yes, i counted) people who followed me on twitter and somewhat gave up on a public persona because of this goddam tweet:
i have only ever used linked lists for two things
a) computer science exams
b) interviews by people who passed the above
I made a joke, had a usual rant and suddenly I'm quoted in tech crunch and a bunch of founder husband christians were in my mentions, drowning out people I wanted to talk to. I miss having an audience. I miss asking people to send me pictures of cats and getting overwhelmed with responses. I locked my account, had a great birthday, and at the end of a ~15-20,000 round trip, I was back in london.
6 months into the job i'd realised that although I enjoy my time in america, it consumed me each time. If I wanted to stay in london, i'd have to work at it. I ended up on a date in may. We've been living together since september. (I also burned through another relationship but now is not a good time to talk about that)
One last trip to the bay for my work's annual party/conference, and it was back to london. I got to go down a slide in the name of art, play in a reconstructed brutalist playground, and see ratatat again. November was opposite month. As if the planets aligned, many of my friends living in america turned up in london.
Really, The last six months of the year have been almost entirely chasing flats, moving house, setting up bills, and trying my best to keep on top of work. Christmas was a write-off. January started with almost complete exhaustion. Right now I'm in a friends flat in oakland. This last week, not zero fucks given, but frankly zero fucks left.
It's back to london soon. I don't know what I am going to do 2016. I feel like i have more choice and less choice than ever. I know i'll be going to america again, and hopefully seattle, and new york. EMF camp is coming up in august.
But honestly, I think my "n-months without burning out" streak is coming to a rough end.
2008 http://figg.livejournal.com/314729.html
2009 http://figg.livejournal.com/343616.html
2010 http://figg.livejournal.com/346046.html
2011 http://figg.livejournal.com/346441.html
2012 http://figg.livejournal.com/347985.html
2013 http://figg.livejournal.com/348330.html
2014 http://figg.livejournal.com/348456.html
It's been a long year:
This year i'd like not to worry about paying rent or bills on time. I want to travel to seattle and somewhere else that isn't sf. I think both will happen.
I haven't worried about bills. I went to sf and seattle, and even new york too! And Belgium.
Relocation to oakland/west coast timezone has been offered and it is mighty tempting. Three months into a job is still too early to decide, but I don't think I'll burn out here. I might get bored, frustrated, but that's my archetype.
I stuck it out in london. SF burns me out every time.
I want to produce more things too, not just more posts, talks, and dad joke tweets, but code, books, games, toys.
Work hasn't been all consuming, but no real writing, posts, talks. Lots of dad jokes.
I don't think 2015 will have any less bumps than 2014, but I think i'll be able to deal with them. Looking back over these last seven years, this is probably the best i've been in a long, long while.
This is still true: this is the longest i've been in a job without seeing a doctor for my entire career (16 months)
It's been a long year.
January was the tail end of coming out, and I nipped to belgium to visit fosdem too. I managed to catch up with steve k and avoid richard stallman. It was nice to be able to thank a bunch of people whose software i've been relying on for years. I also went back up to edinburgh. It was good to see old friends but edinburgh is still a bit of a miserable, stunningly beautiful city.
I got to see deer hoof and it was everything I wanted it to be.
In march, I turned 32. I went back to the sycamore, and got everyone to say happy birthday to phoebe back in london (who shares my birthday). The last.fm clique was in town too and I got to show a bunch of londoners around as if I lived here. I went to new york. I went to seattle. I had a lovely, grounded time. Long walks, escapism. Xian Famous Foods. Mystery Soda Machine. I want to go back.
One hilarious thing about my birthday party is I moved it from one side of the bar to another b/c one of the strangers who we let crash our group was an asshole. It feels good that I can ask that of my friends, and they understood why I made a request.
And I lost my shit again. I'd broken myself in december, and it was only inevitable that it happened again. It seems like each and every time I come to america I end up broken. Probably because none of my normal coping strategies work here. Or it's an entirely alien culture. Who knows. Either way, the more time I spend in oakland and the less time I spend in SF seems to make my life better.
Meanwhile in sf, I blocked the 3696 (yes, i counted) people who followed me on twitter and somewhat gave up on a public persona because of this goddam tweet:
i have only ever used linked lists for two things
a) computer science exams
b) interviews by people who passed the above
I made a joke, had a usual rant and suddenly I'm quoted in tech crunch and a bunch of founder husband christians were in my mentions, drowning out people I wanted to talk to. I miss having an audience. I miss asking people to send me pictures of cats and getting overwhelmed with responses. I locked my account, had a great birthday, and at the end of a ~15-20,000 round trip, I was back in london.
6 months into the job i'd realised that although I enjoy my time in america, it consumed me each time. If I wanted to stay in london, i'd have to work at it. I ended up on a date in may. We've been living together since september. (I also burned through another relationship but now is not a good time to talk about that)
One last trip to the bay for my work's annual party/conference, and it was back to london. I got to go down a slide in the name of art, play in a reconstructed brutalist playground, and see ratatat again. November was opposite month. As if the planets aligned, many of my friends living in america turned up in london.
Really, The last six months of the year have been almost entirely chasing flats, moving house, setting up bills, and trying my best to keep on top of work. Christmas was a write-off. January started with almost complete exhaustion. Right now I'm in a friends flat in oakland. This last week, not zero fucks given, but frankly zero fucks left.
It's back to london soon. I don't know what I am going to do 2016. I feel like i have more choice and less choice than ever. I know i'll be going to america again, and hopefully seattle, and new york. EMF camp is coming up in august.
But honestly, I think my "n-months without burning out" streak is coming to a rough end.