Idoru.us

Looking back over the past year its clear that there have been some major changes. Positive and negative both. What spurred this look back is the fact that on Monday the 26th the two domains I bought will both expire. Thats fine (although man does the registrar want me to renew) and I won’t particularly miss them. In fact I never did a damn thing with one of them so losing that one will do literally nothing to hurt me. The other one, 8feet.me, was something I did with a purpose and it was ultimately a great thing for me. It made sure that I got out of my home and actually did stuff. It helped me get out of a fairly dark period in my life that was filled with negativity. It forced me to be accountable to the promise I had made to myself that I would get out and just fucking do stuff. On the other hand I have gotten much better about actually doing stuff so I feel as though that promise has both been fulfilled and more importantly it has, at least partially, been converted to a habit rather than an exception.

Speaking of habits, there is the simple truth that I am at a point in my life where I need to change some existing habits and create some other habits. I still drink a bit more beer than is really good for me. I still need to get really full bore back into the habit of exercising. I still need to follow through with my decision to learn some programming. I still need to get better about reading. I still need to get better about my diet. I still need to get better about going to bed at a consistent hour. I still need to spend more time with idoru and writing in general. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. On the other hand I am realizing that I need to make these changes which is a huge step from a while ago and they say that it is truly the first step. So with that step made its on to the next steps.

In much lighter news, I will be going on a long weekend away in February with the lady which is something I sort of need. Maybe not with the lady, just the getting away portion is what I need/want. I believe that it is also something she feels that she needs so that makes it an easier sell for both of us. A nice long weekend in south Florida sounds amazing, particularly in the light of all the bad news that I have had this previous week. Planning on doing some reading (I’m looking at you Peripheral), getting some sunshine, and just generally having almost nothing in the way of obligations. We are also, tentatively, planning on getting away towards the end of March but really no clue where to. Which is actually pretty ok at this point other than the fact that plane tickets will increase in cost. Such is life however.

Speaking of traveling, I am starting to explore the idea of a trip to Munich for oktoberfest again. I abandoned the idea last year after making the decision instead to buy a home and knowing that it would eat up the majority of my finances. It also did in fact eat up the majority of my finances. But now that I am not planning on shelling out tens of thousands of dollars, its very tempting to explore the idea f a trip to Munich, drinking beer, and then stopping at Reykjavik on the way home to sit in some hot springs. It also ties in well with the whole point from earlier about ‘getting out’ since that is… truthfully quite far out.

One of the other big changes that I still reflect on from time to time is the change in my employment. This time last year I had a job I hated that I was completely dispassionate about. I liked (most of) the people but that was as close as it got to something I didn’t hate. And now I have a job that I enjoy a great deal more and that pays me better. Those are all some great things, however the real lesson that I took out of that job was the fact that I need to not grow complacent and instead keep focusing on getting new challenges. Otherwise I end up bored and stagnant which leads me towards unhappiness. Hence why I am already starting to explore new opportunities that might be out there; its already apparent that I will outgrow my current job.

But man thats a lot of, mostly good, changes in the last year. Now its time to make some more good changes for 2015. Like losing 15 or 20 pounds. Like lowering my cholesterol (when did I hit middle age again?). Like traveling some where I can. Like exploring my craft and creating new ones.

Man that shit got real sappy real quick.

So its time for my once a month (or so) update of whatever is actually going on in my life that gets rarely read by anybody (including myself). On the other hand I own idoru until December 2020 so its a good way to pass the time. Speaking of domains I own, next month TCBR and 8feet.me will both expire. I considered renewing 8feet but as I am not using it very much anymore and I don’t feel like spending $20 a year for it I think its time to let that go the way of the dodo. Which is just as well I suppose, I can free up some space on the server. Hopefully nobody will miss it, but after checking the logs I am not that concerned(see inset). Its obviously a huge driver of, well, nothing if I am honest with myself. That said it did a fantastic job of doing what I wanted it to do and if it was $10 or less a year I would strongly consider renewing it (especially after just discovering that my host has increased my storage a great deal even though I was in no danger of running out).

Regardless, on to other things. Work has been going awesomely lately. I have earned a lot less overtime money than I earned last year yet I am overall not terribly worried about it. My raise when i took this job was large enough that I am already making more and I am actually doing well at this job. Thats a huge boost for my morale and my general sense of feeling like I have a future in employment. Plus I just discovered that I am apparently in the top 3 for my department and one of those three is moving to a new position in roughly a month and a half…. room for advancement here I come! There are certain monetary rewards that come with that as well which will come in handy in the near future. In the meantime, suffice to say that my work life is pretty darn great.

In terms of the condo… I have been very slow. Not that much of a surprise to people who actually know me. I tend to do things in a flurry of activity and I see a flurry coming up with some of that new found money. Counter stools (yes, I still haven’t gotten more), ceiling fans, closet organizers, wall art, light fixtures…. god I am so domestic I make myself sick at times. But I learn to live. The only actual major project I have planned (as in I might need to hire it out) is to redo the master shower at some point. Oh and adding a backsplash to the kitchen but that one is easier. And painting I suppose but thats really DIY. Still I am really overall happy with this place so 6+ months on I am still thinking it was a good deal.

Speaking of 6+, I think i have finally settled on getting an iPhone6 for my next phone. I wanted to wait until the Nexus6 came out (which it did) and unfortunately it is just as dan big as the iPhone6+ which is too large in my mind. I have a 7″ tablet, I don’t need a 5.5″ phone that I can only sort of put in my pocket. That left it to the year old Nexus5 and the iPhone6 and since the N5 is apparently discontinued its become an easy decision mostly. I can honestly say that apple pay holds only barely more interest to me than CurrentC which holds literally no interest. I will be curious to see if google is able to turn google wallet into an actual contender in that fight though.

I went to see a concert a week or two ago, which is something I hadn’t done in a long time. I went and saw M. Doughty at the Dakota and it was a great experience to actually go see a show again. It as also kind of sobering to realize I really enjoyed going to a show where I could sit on my duff at a table in the balcony (the entire venue is sitting room only) and hear everything clearly and just enjoy the show. I am also going to 2 nights of the Doomtree blowout later this month. The Friday & Saturday night shows at First Ave which will be about as far opposite as possible. I am looking forward to that in a very different way.

Beyond that, I haven’t been doing that much actually. Getting back into regular gym habits which i had long neglected, reading some (although i have at least temporarily abandoned my re-read of the Wheel of Time due to the slower middle books), mucking around online, playing some steam games (Escape Goat is surprisingly fun FYI), drinking beer a little too often, planning home improvement stuff, just generally taking things a bit slower as we slide into winter here. Or crash headlong into winter, whatever. Trying to tackle some other, miscellaneous, projects and maybe plan a vacation or three. So in other words, yeah my life is that boring. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion though. At least not currently.

As seems to be more or less the standard for me, its been quite some time since I actually put anything here. It ties in well with something I have been thinking about lately: the past. Years ago the majority of my social interaction happened online. Either through IRC, instant messenger, blogging, or even online gaming (although I was never as hardcore about the last one as many of the people I have known). But as time continued to pass all of those happened less and less frequently. I know that I am not even close to alone on that front, but the majority of people migrated to Facebook or similar services and, as is my nature, I resisted. Oh I adopted some, such as twitter, but overall I prefer to keep my online identity at least a bit separate from my … irl identity for lack of a better term. As I have continued on that path I have been less interested in my previous methods of communication, simply because there is less communication occurring there.  So, long story short, I tend to update this less and less often although I do try to update it at least sometimes.

There hasn’t been a ton going on lately, thats for sure. Its been a year with a great deal of change, which is fine, but the change has largely settled down and I am not complaining about that. There was a trip to Florida about a month ago and a staycation this week that has, so far, involved a lot of beer. Lots of random little bits of productivity as well, but I can manage to survive through that. As a matter of fact today I managed to finish off the last thing I needed to get done during this little break so who knows whats going to be next. Maybe more beer and reading.

Speaking of reading I started a re-read of the Wheel of Time series while Iw as in Florida. That was a stupid idea and I seem to be a burnt out on fantasy after re-reading all of Harry Potter immediately prior to that trip. So instead I might power through some sci fi or something lighter to give myself a break before I continue on with the Wheel of Time. We’ll see I guess, but I am just not certain that I have the gumption to make it through all of that series right now.

In other, odd, news there is the potential of some more job stuff changing soon. I’m not going to go into the details as I don’t know where its going (or if it will proceed any further) but having a headhunter recruiting me is kind of a neat experience and we will see whether the interview paid off. Either way, it was a pretty low stress experience since I already have a job I enjoy. As with all things, time will tell.

I am also in the midst of deciding what I am going to do with my cell phone. I mean my phone works and shit but it is totally an iPhone4 and showing its age in all sorts of areas. Well technically I have 2 iPhone4s (not 4S) but they are both showing their age. I am looking at the new 6+ and the nexus 6 and going ‘Jesus thats a physically large phone!’ I just don’t really want something that large sitting in my pocket. Point of fact: it wouldn’t fit comfortably in all of my pockets and that somewhat defeats the purpose since I won’t do the phone holster thing. Whats the next option, going back to JNCOs? So the 6 and the nexus 5 (even though its a year old) are possibilities but I am jut not sure yet. The other side of the coin though is that I finally took a hot minute to update one of my iPhones from 4.3.3 (jailbroken) to 7.1.2 (which is the latest available for that model) and went ‘Ohhh that is some nice deign work on the UI.’ I was absolutely an initial naysayer but I came around pretty quickly, if for nothing else the increased functionality is great. Its al the shit that I jailbroke for back in 2010 when I bought the damn phone in the first place. I am trying to decide whether I want to update my macbook to Yosemite but I have a feeling that I just might. I actually like mavericks but I … curious. And there is nothing mission critical on this laptop anyway.

Really there is nothing mission critical anywhere anymore just because the missions have been scrapped.

But back to design, UI and so forth…. I received the notification this morning that 8feet and TCBR are both up for renewal. As I did absolutely nothing with TCBR that one is an easy decision: let it lapse, don’t care. 8feet is a harder sell for me though. On the one had it has served its purpose and doesn’t really get used now. Letting it lapse would make sense and I would save money both on the cost of owning domain and on the storage space (although, space is cheap). On the other side of the coin, I rarely let a project ever go completely & its not as though there was a definite end point when I started 8feet (except for possibly: get the fuck out of the house). Plus it would let me continue the general project as well as give me a chance to redesign it with a bit more an eye towards both usability as well as appearance. I will freely admit that none of my domains are that visually appealing right now but thats the only one I would be likely to revise anytime to soon…. Especially since I still rather like the design of idoru.

Decisions decisions and none of them that important. What a great feeling.