2015 Wrap-Up
Family: Went to NC for Columbus Day and Christmas weekend, very nice visits. Been Skyping with the sibs. Also various Asylum visits back and forth.
Dance: Ballroom here, contra sonic there, but I want to dance more.
Home: Got stuck with the HOA treasurer position for 2016, oh well. Also got my front yard fixed up and hung some of the art I've gotten, looking good, now looking at painting and plumbing to be done.
Professional: Obtained another ITIL certification, and presented at USENIX. The company merger went ok. I'm a little grumpy about benefits changes and related poor communication (e.g., where's my new prescription card?), but no serious issues. The contract reorg has also been going ok. I did get a new manager, but she's been ok so far. She has her hands full and our sub-team more or less runs itself (well, with my leadership). We're expecting our team's workload to ramp up again soon with the new year. We'll have a lot of new tool/process changes to adjust to, as well. Keeps things interesting. :)
Books and related media/experiences:
Dance: Ballroom here, contra sonic there, but I want to dance more.
Home: Got stuck with the HOA treasurer position for 2016, oh well. Also got my front yard fixed up and hung some of the art I've gotten, looking good, now looking at painting and plumbing to be done.
Professional: Obtained another ITIL certification, and presented at USENIX. The company merger went ok. I'm a little grumpy about benefits changes and related poor communication (e.g., where's my new prescription card?), but no serious issues. The contract reorg has also been going ok. I did get a new manager, but she's been ok so far. She has her hands full and our sub-team more or less runs itself (well, with my leadership). We're expecting our team's workload to ramp up again soon with the new year. We'll have a lot of new tool/process changes to adjust to, as well. Keeps things interesting. :)
Books and related media/experiences:
- The Ladies' Ex-Co-Workers book club continues (just 4 women right now) at a leisurely pace. We had good discussions of our last couple of books, *The Watchmaker of Filigree Street* by Natasha Pulley (British Victorian steampunk? time/memory sf), and *Tales from Rugosa Coven* by Sarah Avery (New Jersey pagans). Coming up in a few weeks: *The Martian* by Andy Weir -- I enjoyed the book, haven't seen the movie.
- Local library book club: I really liked *The Dog Stars* by Peter Heller. No one else did; I don't think they're used to post-apocalyptic novels. Next book is some emo thing which I'm happily missing because stevendj and I will be seeing "Best of Storytelling" in DC that night.
- Enjoyed Chessiecon.
- Moby Dick: I have only read sections of it, but I did enjoy the related movie *The Heart of the Sea* (I don't understand the bad reviews: I thought the characters were nuanced, I rooted for the whales but the movie conveyed these whalers doing a dangerous, difficult, sometimes disgusting job, and the FX were good but not too in-your-face, mainly giving depth, e.g., waaaaaay up in the rigging). And last weekend, I enjoyed a game of "Dick", a Cards-Against-Humanity style game with interesting quotes from the book (e.g., lots of sperm whale stuff) to fill in the blanks.